Xu Zewei was allegedly directed by China’s intelligence services to conduct a sweeping espionage campaign to steal data on COVID-19 research and other U.S. policy interests.

Cyber officials lamented Wednesday that its a challenge to make the wider population appreciate the gravity of the threat the hacking group presents.  

The Chinese APT group Lotus Blossom intruded the tool’s internal systems to snoop on a limited set of users’ activities, according to researchers.

The trio, which share lineage with the more broadly defined Lazarus Group, are focused on espionage and cryptocurrency theft, according to CrowdStrike.

The House Homeland Security Committee asked Dario Amodei to answer questions about the implications of the attack and how policymakers and AI companies can respond.

The vendors disclosed and patched the defects last summer, but not before advanced attackers exploited the vulnerabilities to likely gain prolonged access for espionage, according to Amazon.

The attacks, which involved fake job offers as a social engineering lure, were likely aimed at stealing proprietary information about drone manufacturing, ESET said in a report.

The agency, which issued an emergency directive to federal agencies Thursday, said it took months to determine the root cause and mitigate the activity.

A researcher tells CyberScoop that up to 80% of enterprises could be vulnerable to the zero-day Microsoft patched in its June update.

Federal prosecutors accuse Cameron Wagenius of searching how to defect to Russia before he tried to sell stolen data to a foreign intelligence service.