Latest cybersecurity reporting from selected sources.

Courts, Audits and Federal Agencies Found No Evidence 2020 Votes Were AlteredU.S. President Donald Trump used a primetime address Thursday night to allege that China carried out a sweeping compromise of American voter data and to revive doubts about the 2020 election, while stopping short of claiming any votes were changed.

Threat Actor Silently Forwarded Sensitive Emails Matching Strategic TopicsGoogle says Chinese espionage group UNC6508 compromised REDCap environments at North American research institutions, deployed custom malware, stole credentials and covertly forwarded strategically relevant emails through abused compliance rules to support long-term intelligence collection.

Security Service Says China-Linked Actor Compromised Vulnerable Network DevicesNorway's security service confirmed it was targeted by the China-linked Salt Typhoon campaign, marking one of Europe’s clearest public acknowledgements that the cyberespionage operation extended beyond U.S. telecom and federal networks into allied infrastructure.

Hacked Infrastructure Delivered Chinese Nation-State Group's Backdoor, Experts WarnThe widely used, open source text-editing software Notepad++ for Windows said attackers exploited a vulnerability to redirect some users to sites that pushed a backdoor onto their system. Security experts have tied the attack to a broader campaign perpetrated by Chinese nation-state actors.

Ink Dragon Compromised IIS Networks to Relay ShadowPad MalwareA Chinese hacking group is using compromised European government networks as relay nodes to route commands and support other hacking operations. Security firm Check Point attributed the campaign to a Chinese espionage group it tracks as "Ink Dragon."

Federal Cuts Threaten Grid Security as Nation-State Hackings Escalate, Analysts SayCybersecurity leaders told Congress that U.S. energy systems are already compromised by state-backed actors - chiefly China - and warned that shrinking federal support for grid security programs threatens to worsen exposure as utilities face escalating threats with limited resources.

Chinese Hackers Target European Diplomats with LNK File FlawChinese nation-state hackers are exploiting a Windows vulnerability to hack European diplomatic outposts, say security researchers - but operating system giant Microsoft says the flaw doesn't merit a patch. Hackers used a flaw already compromised by North Korea and Russia.

Attack Began With Citrix NetScaler Gateway Compromise, Darktrace SaidThe Chinese cyberespionage hackers commonly tracked as Salt Typhoon haven't stopped their campaign against global telecoms, says managed threat detection firm Darktrace. The group has made telecoms and other digital infrastructure a primary target.

'RedNovember' Has Hacked Organizations in the US, Asia and EuropeA hacking group associated with widespread compromise of edge devices is a Chinese-state-aligned group, says cybersecurity firm Recorded Future. The firm says the threat actor, which it now tracks as RedNovember, is "highly likely a Chinese state-sponsored threat activity group."

GhostRedirector Compromising Windows Servers in Brazil, Thailand and VietnamA suspected Chinese cybercrime group is deploying custom malware to compromise Windows servers in Brazil, Thailand, Portugal and Vietnam as part of search engine optimization fraud to promote gambling websites.

145 Organizations Compromised by China-Linked Ransomware Hackers and OthersNearly 150 different organizations' on-premises SharePoint servers have been exploited by attackers targeting the zero-day vulnerabilities now tracked as ToolShell, researchers warn. Early attacks have been attributed to China-linked groups, in some cases leading to Warlock ransomware infections.

APT31 Compromised the Czech Foreign Affairs Ministry in 2022The Czech government on Wednesday said Chinese state hackers stole sensitive declassified information from the republic's foreign ministry as part of a years-long espionage campaign. Czech Ministry of Foreign Affairs attributed the hack to a Chinese nation-state group tracked as APT31.

Hackers Reportedly Exploited Barracuda ESG Zero-DayThe Belgian government opened a federal probe into a suspected Chinese espionage campaign targeting the country's civilian intelligence service. The attack on the Belgian government aligns with the broader Chinese strategy of compromising edge devices for stealth espionage campaigns.

Evidence Mounts for Chinese Hacking 'Quartermaster'A probable Chinese nation-state threat actor compromised Visual Studio Code and Microsoft Azure cloud infrastructure to target Western technology firms for espionage, security firms Tinexta Cyber and SentinelLabs said. The companies call the campaign "Operation Digital Eye."

T-Mobile Blocks Hackers But Warns Other U.S. Networks May Be CompromisedT-Mobile disputed claims Wednesday that Chinese state-sponsored hackers breached its systems and stole customer data, warning that some U.S. communications networks may still be compromised and detailing how its layered defenses and third-party cybersecurity partnerships thwarted the attack.

Chinese Botnet Targets US Critical Infrastructure and TaiwanA Chinese state-sponsored botnet called Raptor Train has infected more than 260,000 IoT and office network devices to target critical infrastructure globally. The hackers used zero-days and known vulnerabilities to compromise more than 20 different types of devices to expand their botnet.

Global Botnet's Victims Are in United States, Germany, Romania and Hong KongFBI Director Christopher Wray said Wednesday the bureau seized control of a Chinese-developed botnet that maintained access to thousands of compromised devices across the globe as part of an effort to launch widespread disruptive cyberattacks. The botnet is a Mirai variant.

UNC3886 Targeted Edge Devices for Persistence, Mandiant SaysA suspected Chinese hacking group used open-source rootkits to ensure persistence on compromised edge devices such as VMware ESXi servers for espionage campaigns, Google Mandiant said. The hacking group, which Mandiant tracks as UNC3886, is likely a Chinese threat group hacking for Beijing.

Beijing's Tough-to-Track Mesh Networks Built Using Hacked Devices, Mandiant WarnsMultiple Chinese cyber espionage groups, including Volt Typhoon, are using operational relay box networks, aka ORBs, built using leased proxy servers and compromised or end-of-life routers, to avoid detection and complicate efforts to track their activities, warns Google Cloud's Mandiant.

Up to 270,000 Defense Staff Across the UK Affected by HackSensitive information of thousands of U.K. defense personnel was exposed to hackers after a threat actor with suspected ties to the Chinese government compromised the networks of a defense contractor. The data may not have been stolen, a government official said.