Suspected Chinese State-Linked Hackers Spying On 'All-Weather Friend' Pakistan

Suspected Chinese state-linked hackers have been carrying out digital espionage on Pakistan, which Beijing refers to as its "iron-clad brother" and "all-weather friend". The aim is to obtain information related to its internal security and development plans.According to US cyber threat intelligence firm SentinelLabs, Chinese hackers carried out intrusions into the digital infrastructure of the police forces of Balochistan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and Islamabad.They also targeted the Punjab Safe Cities Authority, which is mandated with maintaining an Integrated Command, Control, and Communication system across the Pakistani province to transform public safety and urban policing.The China-linked cyber threat actors deployed sophisticated malware families, PlugX, ShadowPad, Cobalt Strike to infiltrate Pakistan's digital infrastructure and steal valuable data, SentinelLabs said based on the analysis of command and control netflow data.The report also states that suspected India-linked hackers also targeted Balochistan Police, but Indian hackers targeting a Pakistani agency is hardly a surprise.