This is your China Hack Report: Daily US Tech Defense podcast.

Hey listeners, Ting here with today's China Hack Report—your digital defense wingman in the never-ending cyber dogfight between Beijing and Washington. Strap in, because the last 24 hours have unleashed some jaw-dropping developments that’ll make even the most seasoned sysadmins clutch their coffee.

Let’s start with the bombshell that landed Wednesday: Chinese state-backed hackers were burrowed inside F5’s networks for nearly two years. That’s not just unfortunate, it’s catastrophic, seeing as F5's BIG-IP platform props up 85% of Fortune 500 companies and countless federal systems. Bloomberg revealed the adversaries basically turned F5’s own software into a revolving door; an employee oversight left a digital window wide open, and the attackers made themselves comfy, snatching source code, config files, and—most critically—secret vulnerability reports. Once inside, they deployed stealthy malware dubbed Brickstorm, quietly infecting VMware virtual machines and deeper infrastructure while lying dormant for twelve months. Not exactly the kind of “persistence” you want on your resume.

F5 didn’t realize the extent of the situation until August 2025, triggering an all-hands-on-deck response from CEO Francois Locoh-Donou, Google’s Mandiant, and CrowdStrike. CISA called the whole affair a “significant cyber threat targeting federal networks” and issued an emergency directive: if you’ve got F5 gear online, patch or disconnect before October 22—or risk waving at the PLA through a backdoor. The UK’s National Cyber Security Centre amplified the alert, warning attackers might piggyback on the F5 breach to find fresh vulnerabilities across the sector.

And while US agencies scramble for patches, Senator Bill Cassidy fired off a formal warning to Cisco over critical vulnerabilities affecting their network infrastructure, referencing active exploits tied to—wait for it—China, Russia, and Iran. Cassidy’s grilling Cisco CEO Chuck Robbins about patching strategies and how customers can keep up, especially since nearly half of US firms still don’t have a Chief Information Security Officer. CISA isn’t pulling punches—disconnect or update at once, with Citrix and Cisco appliances also flagged for live exploitation.

On the malware front, Mandiant confirmed Brickstorm was the weapon of choice inside F5, and CISA has added related exploits to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog. At the tactical level, threat actors are leveraging public exploit code for everything from F5’s config exposure to upload/download proxy bugs in Cisco gear. If you’re a defender, now’s the time to brush up on your threat hunting guides and tighten log retention—those attackers are known to wait out your deletion cycles.

Meanwhile, China has gone on the offensive diplomatically, with its Ministry of State Security accusing the US NSA of hacking the National Time Service Center in Xi’an. The claim is they’ve got “irrefutable evidence” of US espionage targeting China’s precision timing infrastructure—a foundation for GPS, communications, and satellite ops. Beijing says the NSA used 42 flavors of custom cyber weapons plus pilfered credentials to sneak past internal controls, but so far, their public evidence is mostly geopolitical fireworks.

Immediate defense steps? CISA wants every federal org running F5 patched ASAP and recommends organizations audit for Brickstorm indicators, bolster access control, and review log-deletion policies. Cisco, Citrix, and VMware admins—look alive, patch everything, and chase your vendors for the latest security bulletins.

That’s it for today’s China Hack Report. If you want to keep your digital fortress standing, follow the advisories, subscribe for daily updates, and remember: the only way to hack it in cyber is to never get hacked. Thanks for tuning in—don’t forget to subscribe. This...

This is your China Hack Report: Daily US Tech Defense podcast.

This is Ting, your cyber-wit in chief, checking in with the absolute hottest intel from the last 24 hours. So, get comfy—I’ve got the story on China-linked cyber chaos and the emergency moves rocking the U.S. tech defense world.

First up, picture a five-alarm fire at F5 Networks, an American cybersecurity giant. F5’s engineers stumbled onto something ugly: someone—well, let’s get real, Bloomberg says it’s almost certainly state-backed hackers from China—snuck into F5’s internal development systems and helped themselves to pieces of BIG-IP source code, as well as docs packed with juicy, undisclosed vulnerabilities. That’s the same BIG-IP powering critical network infrastructure everywhere, not just tech companies but government agencies too. F5’s CEO François Locoh-Donou has been personally briefing customers, trying to keep panic from exploding, but it’s hard to chill when you realize the attackers were lurking in their systems for nearly a year.

What really makes this week’s breach wild isn’t only scale—it’s the national security response. CISA’s Acting Director Madhu Gottumukkala called it “alarming,” and the agency dropped a rare Emergency Directive, ED 26-01. Federal teams must hunt down every F5 BIG-IP, F5OS, BIG-IQ, and BNK/CNF device exposed on the internet and patch them, stat, by October 22nd, per F5’s latest “Quarterly Security Notification.” Any org running F5 gear, federal or not, got the same urgent warning—patch now or risk catastrophic compromise.

Let’s talk malware: out of this breach, F5’s threat-hunting team dropped a new guide focused on malware called Brickstorm. This sneaky little program has roots in attacks linked to Chinese APT groups, and it’s remarkable for how it leverages stolen development blueprints to facilitate future hacking. The guide is being passed around like flu shots on a Monday at the CDC—and is an instant must-read for every IT security boss.

What sectors are sweating most? Anyone using F5 is in the blast radius, but government, finance, and healthcare are especially jittery, given their reliance on F5 tech to shield sensitive data. Zscaler’s researchers, including Atinderpal Singh and Deepen Desai, laid out how this breach hands bad actors an operational roadmap, enabling them to weaponize zero-day vulnerabilities at breakneck speed. Expect a surge in attempts to exploit newly discovered flaws, and not just by China-linked players—nation-state cyber espionage is expanding, with moves toward NGOs and academia as Microsoft’s Digital Defense Report highlights.

Defensive moves? Besides racing to install emergency patches, CISA and F5 have tossed out the “zero trust” playbook: minimize device exposure, slice your networks into microsegments, lock down access controls by default, and review every configuration like you’re prepping for a presidential debate.

And don’t get distracted by headlines—while the F5 drama unfolds, OpenAI just dropped findings showing attackers are actively trying to bend ChatGPT and other LLMs to refine their hacks. The world of AI social engineering is here and growing—expect attack sophistication to keep ramping up.

So listeners, lock down your networks, talk to your IT folks, and hit those patches now. Is your organization still running F5? Be extra paranoid. Thanks for tuning in to China Hack Report—remember to subscribe for your daily dose of defense, and keep those cyber shields up. This has been a quiet please production, for more check out quiet please dot ai.

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This is your China Hack Report: Daily US Tech Defense podcast.

Hey everyone, it’s Ting. If there’s a word to sum up the last 24 hours on the China cyber front, it’s “reload.” Pull up a chair and your favorite cold brew, because the hits keep coming, and the drama is as thick as Beijing smog. I’ll take you through the latest moves, the malware, the sectors under fire, and what you should do right now.

Let’s start with the F5 Networks fiasco—

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This is your China Hack Report: Daily US Tech Defense podcast.

Hey listeners, Ting here—your go-to for truth bombs about China-linked cyber shenanigans! There’s no way around it: the past 24 hours in US tech defense have been absolutely turbocharged, so let’s jack in.

First up, let’s talk about the headline-grabber: the ongoing BRICKSTORM espionage campaign, as spotlighted by Google’s Threat Intelligence and Mandiant teams. This isn’t your typical “script kiddies in hoodies” stuff. UNC5221, a top-tier Chinese APT actor, is laying down highly stealthy backdoors, targeting US tech giants and law firms. This malware’s superpower? Staying invisible—these intruders have lingered in enterprise systems on average for nearly 400 days before anyone even smells something fishy. And the goal is bigger than grabbing source code—they’re after zero-day vulnerabilities, laying groundwork for much broader access, possibly for strategic disruption if tensions with China ratchet up. Legal, SaaS, and core tech sectors: you’re in the crosshairs, my friends.

But the plot thickens. Remember July’s SharePoint hack? That disaster is still echoing through the cyber halls of power. After three Chinese threat groups—Linen Typhoon, Violet Typhoon, and Storm-2603—exploited three nasty zero-days after Microsoft’s confidential notifications, more than 400 organizations, including the US National Nuclear Security Administration, found themselves on the wrong end of a multi-stage attack. The kicker: the attackers sidestepped both initial and post-patch protections, keeping their foothold even after Microsoft dropped emergency updates. CISA has been all over this, urging everyone to apply every available SharePoint patch, enable the Anti-malware Scan Interface, rotate your ASP.NET keys, and scan logs for weird POST requests to "/_layouts/15/ToolPane.aspx". And if your SharePoint server’s end-of-life—or you suspect it’s compromised—get it off the internet now.

Across sectors, things are getting uncomfortably real. Oracle just threw a five-alarm fire with CVE-2025-61884—a critical, unauthenticated remote code execution vulnerability in E-Business Suite. No login needed, just point and exploit. Oracle urges immediate patching, because if you’re running EBS 12.2.3 through 12.2.14, you could lose sensitive internal data, or worse, give an intruder a golden ticket to your entire network. These kinds of ERP attacks are a feast for nation-state hackers who want a shortcut to America’s business underbelly.

There’s also been a flurry of Cobalt Strike beacon traffic flagged on multiple US servers today—a sure tell that either preliminary access is being brokered or command-and-control persistence is being set up for future incursions.

Meanwhile, Gladinet file-sharing servers are under siege by a zero-day, with no patch yet in sight. Since attackers can steal cryptographic keys and execute code, the immediate ask from security pros is to apply temporary mitigation steps, disconnect public-facing servers, and monitor for illicit API traffic.

The botnet Aisuru, born in Asia but now powered by US-based hijacked IoT, just broke DDoS records—showing China-linked actors are colonizing our own infrastructure for their attacks. If you haven’t isolated those smart fridges, get a move on.

Finally, in the past day, CISA issued a new warning on a fresh Windows local privilege escalation bug. Patch immediately, restrict unnecessary admin rights, and scrutinize all accounts logging in from abroad.

Key takeaways: patch fast, check logs, rotate keys, and if your public-facing servers aren’t absolutely mission-critical, get them off the internet or behind strong access controls. China’s cyber playbook is evolving, so your defense has to keep up.

Thanks for tuning in—don’t forget to subscribe for your daily shot of cyber reality from Ting. This has been a quiet please...

This is your China Hack Report: Daily US Tech Defense podcast.

Hey listeners, Ting here—welcome back to your favorite tech defense briefing on China Hack Report: Daily US Tech Defense for October 12, 2025. Let’s skip the pleasantries because things have been sizzling in the last 24 hours. If you blinked, you missed something hacked.

Top of the threat list: the **Beamglea Campaign**, which ramped up just yesterday. Chinese cybercriminals abused 175 compromised npm packages and the unpkg CDN for a large-scale phishing spree. These attacks are leveraging cloud-based infrastructure that US startups and Fortune 500 companies trust for deploying web apps. The technique: embed phishing malware in innocent-looking packages that developers download, turning legitimate code into a Trojan horse. This one’s spreading fast, so dev teams, audit every dependency now and check for indicators of compromise—CISA's emergency bulletin spells it out, plus recommends kill-switches and immediate network segmentation for any suspected system.

Over in the world of **malware**, US security pros are racing to counter the fresh variant of Stealit malware, which piggybacks off game and VPN installers. This stealthy beast abuses Node.js's single executable feature, which means it can sneak onto endpoints almost as easily as adding a browser extension. Stealit’s recent wave managed to siphon login credentials from three major US tech firms—one in fintech, one in communications, and another we can’t name (yet). Sophos and Mandiant are ringing the alarm, advising a full sweep for malicious installers and a lockdown on third-party software—even your games aren’t safe.

The **DDoS botnet Aisuru** just set new records striking US ISPs—AT&T, Verizon, and Comcast took the brunt. Nearly 30 trillion bits per second slammed into US infrastructure, traced to compromised IoT devices like smart cameras and routers. This is no random flood; experts say Chinese operators likely orchestrated the botnet’s surge to test domestic resilience. If you run an ISP or host consumer devices, patch everything and isolate infected segments. CISA’s guidance pushes for disabling unused ports and rolling out network-level anomaly detection, pronto.

CISA’s also urging hospitals and biotech to tighten ship after fresh disclosure of Chinese-made medical monitors carrying a backdoor. The FDA and American Hospital Association back this up. At least one common monitor used in US clinics can download unauthorized code remotely—meaning someone in Shenzhen could tweak your ECG with a few keystrokes. Hospitals: apply the recommended firmware patch and isolate these devices to their own VLAN with zero internet access. Biotech firms, heads up: the Senate just advanced the Biosecure Act, aiming to cut federal contracts with Chinese genetic tech suppliers. Anyone in genomics or medical research, reevaluate partnerships immediately.

And last but not least, the **velociraptor tool**—meant for digital forensics—was hijacked by a China-linked crew dubbed Storm-2603. They deployed ransomware via the same DFIR tool US security teams use for incident response. Irony alert: defenders get hacked with their own shield. The immediate fix is restricting tool access and enforcing stricter privilege boundaries on forensics software.

So what’s my take? China’s cyber game is a mix of speed, scale, and a penchant for infiltrating the very tools we rely on for defense. CISA, under Nick Anderson and with leadership changes pending, is laser-focused on protecting operational tech and critical infrastructure. Their action plan is clear: assess exposure, patch fast, restrict everything, and keep scanning. Whether you’re running a data center, a hospital, or just a fancy smart fridge, tighten up—because Beijing does not sleep.

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This is your China Hack Report: Daily US Tech Defense podcast.

Hey there, tech enthusiasts It's Ting here, and let's dive into the latest China-linked cyber activities affecting US interests. The past 24 hours have been wild, so buckle up!

Chinese hackers have been getting bolder, and just yesterday, they breached a major U.S. law firm using a zero-day exploit. Chris Riotta from BankInfoSecurity reports that this attack compromised attorney email accounts, likely tied to ongoing Chinese-linked operations. Meanwhile, another group, known as Storm-2603, has been using the Velociraptor IR tool in ransomware attacks for persistent network access.

In the realm of malware, a new variant called "GPUGate" uses GPUs to evade defenses. This sophisticated approach highlights the growing threat landscape. Additionally, researchers identified a campaign weaponizing the open-source Nezha tool to deliver Gh0st RAT malware. This campaign is attributed to suspected Chinese threat actors.

Emergency patches have been issued by Oracle for its E-Business Suite, addressing a critical vulnerability exploited by the Graceful Spider threat actor. And, in a move to secure critical infrastructure, CISA has warned about actively exploited vulnerabilities, urging immediate patching.

Recently, the U.S. government added several Chinese entities to its Entity List for supplying military drone parts to Iran and its proxies. This highlights the complexity of global cyber threats and the need for robust defenses.

So, how can you stay safe? CISA recommends applying patches as soon as possible, disabling unnecessary ports and protocols, and implementing a centralized patch management system. Stay vigilant, and remember, every click counts!

Thanks for tuning in Don't forget to subscribe for more updates on China's cyber landscape. This has been a quiet please production, for more check out quiet please dot ai.

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This is your China Hack Report: Daily US Tech Defense podcast.

Hey listeners, this is Ting, and if you’re like me, you’ve had your coffee and your firewall logs open since 6 a.m. because the past 24 hours in US-China cyber have been—well, let’s just say “spicy.” I’ll walk you through the key plays, the people, the patches, and what you need to do right now to keep your systems from becoming the next trending hashtag in Beijing’s cyber playbook.

First up, let’s talk malware. The big news from Huntress is that Chinese-linked actors have weaponized the open-source Nezha monitoring tool—yep, that’s Nezha, not Nezuko—to deliver Gh0st RAT via PHPMyAdmin flaws. According to Huntress, this isn’t just a one-off: they’re using a slick log poisoning technique to plant web shells, and they’ve hit over 100 servers globally. If you’re running PHPMyAdmin, assume you’re on the menu, and patch yesterday. This is a classic case of turn-key open-source tools getting a malicious facelift, and it’s as subtle as a dumpling in a soup bowl.

Sector-wise, law firms got the spotlight this week. Williams & Connolly, the DC heavyweight that’s defended presidents and politicians, confirmed a breach via a zero-day attack, with a “small number” of attorney emails compromised, per the New York Times. The FBI’s Washington field office is leading the investigation, and CrowdStrike’s initial assessment points to a nation-state actor—no prizes for guessing which one. The good news: Williams & Connolly says client databases remain untouched, and they’ve brought in Norton Rose Fulbright and CrowdStrike for cleanup. But here’s the kicker: Mandiant’s September report confirms this isn’t a one-off. Since March, Chinese groups have been targeting US legal services and software firms, with a clear focus on scooping up intel on national security and trade. If you’re in legal, tech, or anything with IP worth stealing, consider this your wake-up call.

On the infrastructure front, the picture is grim. CISA—that’s the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency—is running on fumes thanks to the government shutdown. Only a third of their staff are on duty, and the Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act just expired, so threat intel sharing between feds and private sector is down by as much as 80%. This is exactly the kind of chaos that makes hackers rub their hands together. CISA is still pushing out alerts, though, like the one about CVE-2025-4008 in Smartbedded Meteobridge—a command injection flaw that’s actively being exploited. If you use Meteobridge, patch now.

Let’s talk patches and warnings. Oracle just dropped an emergency update for CVE-2025-61882 in E-Business Suite—that’s a CVSS 9.8 critical, so don’t sit on this one. CrowdStrike is tracking the actor behind this as Graceful Spider, better known as Cl0p, but don’t get distracted—Chinese groups are still the main event. Meanwhile, Microsoft confirmed exploitation of CVE-2025-10035 in Fortra GoAnywhere, leading to Medusa ransomware deployment. If you haven’t updated to GoAnywhere 7.8.4, now’s the time.

So, what do you do? First, assume you’re targeted. Second, patch everything—PHPMyAdmin, Meteobridge, Oracle EBS, GoAnywhere. Third, lock down your email and web interfaces. Fourth, review your incident response plan, because if CISA’s hobbled, you’re your own first responder. And finally, share threat data with your peers—even if the feds are offline, the private sector’s threat intel feeds are still your best friend.

In short, this is no time for business as usual. The Chinese cyber playbook is evolving fast, and they’re hitting when the US is least prepared. But hey, that’s why you’re listening to me, right?

Thanks for tuning in to Ting’s daily cyber dispatch. If you want more of this straight to your inbox, subscribe, follow, and stay sharp. This has been a quiet please production, for more check out quiet please dot...

This is your China Hack Report: Daily US Tech Defense podcast.

Hey listeners, Ting here with your daily dose of cyber chaos from the Middle Kingdom, and wow, what a wild 24 hours it's been in the world of Chinese cyber operations targeting US infrastructure.

Let's dive right into the biggest bombshell. A bombshell report just dropped linking the Beijing Institute of Electronics Technology and Application, or BIETA, directly to China's Ministry of State Security. This isn't just another research firm - we're talking about a front operation with at least four personnel tied to MSS officers. The kicker? They're connected to the University of International Relations, which we all know is basically spy school central. This revelation shows just how deep China's cyber tentacles reach into what appears to be legitimate academic research.

But that's not all, folks. We've got a massive surge in scanning attacks hitting Palo Alto Networks systems that has cybersecurity experts on high alert. GreyNoise detected over 1,280 unique IP addresses probing GlobalProtect and PAN-OS profiles on October 3rd - that's a staggering 500% increase from the usual 200. What's particularly interesting is that most of these scans originated from the US but were targeting systems in the US and Pakistan. Seven percent of those scanning IPs were confirmed malicious, with the remaining 91% classified as suspicious.

Meanwhile, Oracle is scrambling with emergency patches after the Cl0p ransomware group exploited a critical vulnerability in Oracle E-Business Suite. CVE-2025-61882 scored a perfect 9.8 on the CVSS scale, allowing unauthenticated remote attackers to completely compromise systems. Oracle's advisory warns that this flaw affects versions 12.2.3 through 12.2.14, and the attackers began their campaign on September 29th.

Adding to the chaos, we've got UAT-8099, a Chinese-speaking cybercrime group running a global SEO fraud ring using compromised Microsoft IIS servers. Most infections are hitting India and Thailand, but their reach is expanding rapidly.

On the defensive front, CISA just flagged CVE-2025-4008 affecting Smartbedded Meteobridge as actively exploited, adding it to their Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog. They're also dealing with ongoing sophisticated cyberattacks against multiple federal agencies using Cisco vulnerabilities.

The threat landscape is evolving faster than ever, with Chinese groups increasingly using supply chain attacks and sophisticated malware to penetrate US systems. From banking to defense contractors, no sector is safe.

Thanks for tuning in, listeners, and don't forget to subscribe for your daily cyber intelligence briefing. This has been a quiet please production, for more check out quiet please dot ai.

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This is your China Hack Report: Daily US Tech Defense podcast.

Ting here—your favorite cyber sleuth, always caffeinated and running on pure world-class paranoia. Buckle up, listeners, because the past 24 hours have been a joyride through digital chaos, Chinese intrigue, and high-stakes defense drama.

First, let’s talk Manhattan, where the Secret Service just nuked a massive Chinese-linked plot to disrupt New York City’s mobile networks during the UN General Assembly. Investigators say over 100,000 SIM cards were stealthily stashed around the city, hooked up to hundreds of SIM servers designed to assault cell towers, jam 911 calls, and let cyber-criminals chat anonymously. The SIM farm scheme was so big—more than 300 servers could pump out millions of anonymous texts per minute, basically turning emergency comms into dial-up purgatory. The fact that this happened right before world leaders landed in NYC tells you it wasn’t petty crime—it was infrastructure sabotage with a geopolitical flavor. The Secret Service insists no arrests are made yet, but timing? Downright suspicious, and supply chains for SIM hardware are under review. Also, telecom firms everywhere, please stop treating anomaly detection like a gym membership and actually use it.

On the digital front, Palo Alto Networks is the day’s punching bag. GreyNoise detected a blaring 500 percent surge in scans hitting Palo Alto login portals. More than 1,200 unique IPs were probing for weaknesses, with a chunk clustering in the Netherlands. What’s wild is that the scanning patterns are eerily similar to recent Cisco ASA activity—the fingerprints match, the tools sync up, and the timing is textbook pre-vulnerability-disclosure behavior. Translation, some very methodical folks are casing major U.S. network doors looking for cracks, and GreyNoise’s enhanced blocklists can’t get here fast enough.

Malware watch—the infamous Phantom Taurus, a newly identified Chinese state-aligned advanced persistent threat, just deployed the Net-Star suite across Africa, the Middle East, Asia, and, worryingly, it’s poking U.S. telecom and government targets now. Net-Star is like malware Swiss Army knives—modular, fileless, and designed to muck up IIS web servers while ghosts through standard detection. Palo Alto’s Unit 42 says Phantom Taurus is switching from basic email theft to snatching up raw database records and hiding deep in infrastructure. The lesson? Database admins, get your patch on and up your anomaly logging—yesterday.

CISA is still running emergency alerts despite a government furlough, and they’ve tagged new vulnerabilities in D-Link routers and a gnarly sudo utility flaw. The word from CyberWire and Security Affairs is clear: patch D-Link devices, update sudo, and don’t wait for FedEx to deliver the “urgent” sticker. Our good friends at Oracle and RedHat are still reeling from extortion campaigns and supply chain hits. If you’re running Jenkins, Juniper, or Samsung smart home devices, double-check CISA’s Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog for mandatory patches.

One more hot tip: Apple and Google both issued new rounds of security updates after malware attacks exploited weird font bugs and encrypted messaging platforms. If your company still doesn’t automate patching for mobile endpoints—this is your moment. Don’t make me come over.

All told, the past 24 hours have been about scale—whether it's SIM farms, unrelenting login scans, or malware operations feeding off neglected update schedules. Cyber defense right now means watching supply chains, rigging rapid response blocklists, and patching like your Starbucks depends on it.

Thanks for tuning in. Subscribe or risk missing tomorrow’s cyber soap opera—plenty more hacks where these came from. This has been a quiet please production, for more check out quiet please dot ai.

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