A Chinese language nationwide was arrested in Milan, Italy, final week for allegedly being linked to the state-sponsored Silk Storm hacking group, which chargeable for cyberattacks in opposition to American organizations and authorities companies.
Based on Italian media ANSA, the 33-year-old man, Xu Zewei, was arrested at Milan’s Malpensa Airport on July third after arriving on a flight from China. Italian police arrested the suspect on a world warrant from the U.S. authorities.
ANSA experiences that Xu is accused of being linked to the Chinese language state-sponsored Silk Storm hacking group, aka Hafnium, which has been chargeable for a variety of cyberespionage assaults in opposition to the U.S. and different international locations.
Specifically, Italian media experiences that Xu is linked to the 2020 Silk Storm cyberattacks on infectious illness researchers and healthcare organizations, which aimed to steal information on anti-COVID vaccines.
“These actors have been noticed trying to determine and illicitly receive precious mental property (IP) and public well being information associated to vaccines, remedies, and testing from networks and personnel affiliated with COVID-19-related analysis,” learn the joint advisory.
The hacking group has additionally been linked to newer cyberespionage campaigns, together with these on the U.S. Treasury’s Workplace of Overseas Property Management (OFAC) and the Committee on Overseas Funding.
In March, Microsoft reported that Silk Storm had begun focusing on distant administration instruments and cloud providers in provide chain assaults to realize entry to downstream clients’ networks.
Xu is at the moment being held in Busto Arsizio jail with the U.S. looking for extradition to face trial within the States.
Whereas cloud assaults could also be rising extra refined, attackers nonetheless succeed with surprisingly easy methods.
Drawing from Wiz’s detections throughout hundreds of organizations, this report reveals 8 key methods utilized by cloud-fluent menace actors.
