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Salt Typhoon Expands Global Surveillance: Chinese Cyberespionage Operations Confirmed in Norway

China’s state-sponsored cyberespionage apparatus continues to widen its global operational footprint, with Norway emerging as the latest confirmed target in an expanding intelligence collection campaign attributed to the advanced persistent threat group widely tracked as Salt Typhoon . The confirmation came through Norway’s Police Security Service (PST) National Threat Assessment 2026, released in early February and heavily discussed across the European security community shortly thereafter. The assessment formally attributed cyberespionage activities targeting Norwegian entities to actors operating on behalf of the Chinese state — marking a significant geopolitical and cybersecurity development for the Nordic region. From Regional Intrusions to Global Surveillance Architecture Salt Typhoon is not an emerging threat actor but rather part of a mature, strategically tasked cyberespionage ecosystem aligned with long-horizon intelligence objectives. The group has previously b...
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SaaS as a Weapon: Phone-Based Phishing Espionage Campaign

Cyber-espionage has entered a phase where malware is no longer the primary entry point. Increasingly, the most effective intrusion vector is human trust—engineered, manipulated, and exploited through legitimate digital ecosystems. A newly uncovered espionage campaign illustrates this shift with alarming clarity. Threat actors have been observed leveraging trusted SaaS platforms combined with phone-based social engineering to infiltrate government institutions and corporate environments across the United States, Europe, and the Asia-Pacific region. This is not conventional phishing — it is voice-driven, platform-assisted cyber-espionage. The Evolution of Phishing: From Email to Voice Traditional phishing relies on malicious emails and spoofed portals. But as enterprise filtering and awareness matured, adversaries pivoted toward direct voice engagement — commonly known as vishing. Attackers impersonated: IT support personnel SaaS administrators Security complia...
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Amaranth-Dragon: The Chinese Operation Weaponizing WinRAR to Breach Southeast Asian Governments

Cyber-espionage rarely announces itself loudly. It operates in the quiet margins—inside compressed files, disguised within routine workflows, and hidden beneath the trust users place in everyday software. The emergence of Amaranth-Dragon , a Chinese-linked advanced persistent threat cluster, reflects this philosophy with precision. Recent intelligence investigations have revealed that this espionage operation rapidly operationalized a newly disclosed WinRAR vulnerability, transforming a simple archive extraction process into a covert intelligence access vector. What appears at first glance to be a routine software flaw has instead become a gateway into government networks, law-enforcement systems, and sensitive regional communications across Southeast Asia. This is not opportunistic hacking. This is strategic surveillance engineering. What Is Amaranth-Dragon? Amaranth-Dragon is assessed as a state-aligned cyber-espionage actor operating within China’s broader intell...
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Chinese APT Lotus Blossom Exploits Notepad++ Supply Chain for Espionage

A sophisticated supply chain compromise was uncovered targeting Notepad++ , the widely adopted open-source text editor. The operation has been attributed to a Chinese state-linked APT known as Lotus Blossom (also tracked as Billbug ). This incident exemplifies the growing sophistication of nation-state cyber-espionage operations and demonstrates how trusted software infrastructure can be weaponized for long-term intelligence collection. Overview of the Attack Lotus Blossom gained unauthorized access to the Notepad++ update infrastructure, allowing them to distribute malicious updates to select organizations. These updates were digitally signed to appear legitimate and, once installed, embedded espionage backdoors capable of long-term persistence, exfiltrating sensitive files, and establishing continuous access without raising alarms. Scope and Targets The campaign was highly selective rather than indiscriminate. Analysis indicates that the attackers focused on: Stra...
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Mustang Panda’s Geopolitical Phishing: China’s Next‑Gen Espionage Tradecraft

Cybersecurity researchers uncovered a sophisticated phishing campaign attributed to a China‑linked advanced persistent threat (APT) group, widely tracked as Mustang Panda . This operation departed from mass phishing tactics — it leveraged crafted lures impersonating U.S. policy briefings to target diplomats, election‑related officials, and individuals involved in international diplomacy. What makes this campaign noteworthy is its blend of geopolitical alignment, social engineering precision, and the assistance of artificial intelligence in detection — marking a new frontier in state‑level cyberespionage tradecraft. Campaign Overview: Deception Wrapped in Diplomacy Researchers at Israel‑based cybersecurity firm Dream Security first identified the operation when their AI monitoring agent flagged suspicious activity tied to emails purporting to contain official policy materials. Rather than generic phishing, the attachments mimicked U.S. diplomatic briefings — documents th...
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Russia’s Fancy Bear Weaponizes CVE‑2026‑21509 Before Defenders Can Patch

Russia’s most recognizable cyber‑espionage actor delivered a quiet but decisive reminder to defenders worldwide: the era of the “patch grace period” is effectively over. Russia‑linked APT28 — also tracked as Fancy Bear or UAC‑0001 — rapidly weaponized a newly patched Microsoft Office vulnerability, CVE‑2026‑21509 , using it to compromise targeted organizations in Ukraine, Slovakia, and Romania . The campaign was deliberate, regionally focused, and technically restrained — hallmarks of intelligence collection rather than disruption or profit. This operation matters not because it used Microsoft Office — that is expected — but because it demonstrates how modern state‑sponsored adversaries now treat security updates as operational intelligence. CVE‑2026‑21509: A Quiet but Potent Office Flaw CVE‑2026‑21509 is a security feature bypass vulnerability affecting Microsoft Office’s handling of specially crafted documents, particularly RTF files . Unlike traditional ...
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Cyber-Espionage: State Power, Methodologies, and Global Rankings

Cyber-espionage is the use of digital operations by states or state-aligned actors to obtain strategic intelligence from foreign governments, corporations, research institutions, and critical infrastructure operators. Unlike cybercrime, which is primarily profit-driven, cyber-espionage is fundamentally about power, influence, and long-term advantage . Modern cyber-espionage operations are characterized by patience, stealth, and persistence. Actors often maintain access to victim networks for months or years, silently collecting communications, credentials, operational data, and intellectual property. The objective is rarely immediate disruption; instead, it is to build a sustained intelligence picture that can inform diplomatic leverage, military planning, economic competition, or future coercive operations. Why Cyber-Espionage Has Become Central to State Power Several factors have made cyber-espionage a preferred intelligence discipline for modern states: The...
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