Suspected Chinese espionage group used a Roundcube exploit chain to burrow into universities
cyberscoop.com
Proofpoint researchers said attackers targeted physics and engineering departments, and warn that the campaign is likely ongoing.

cross-posted from: https://mander.xyz/post/54781520

China-aligned attackers broke into the networks of U.S. and Canadian universities to steal sensitive data and establish persistent access via webshells and backdoors, Proofpoint threat researchers said Tuesday.

The espionage-motivated attacks targeted physics and engineering departments, focusing on administrators and professors with national security links or organizations researching astrophysics and particle physics.

Proofpoint identified less than 10 university victims and estimates a few dozen universities may be impacted, Greg Lesnewich, principal threat researcher at Proofpoint, told CyberScoop. The company first observed the campaign in May and believes the campaign is ongoing.

“There is a high likelihood that many victims have not been made aware of this activity yet,” Lesnewich added.

…

The engineering aspects do align with China’s strategic initiatives, he added.

…

“China-aligned adversaries have been targeting other types of edge devices such as routers and VPN concentrators for years with various exploits to create a foothold into a target network, not using email for delivery,” Lesnewich said. “This campaign flips that on its head, using email to deliver an exploit chain to compromise a mail server, instead of using email to deliver a credential harvesting URL or malware to target an end user, not a server.”

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  • Sepia@mander.xyzOP
    21·
    9 days ago

    Just stumbled upon this report stating that China is reducing incentives for academics to submit papers to international journals over leak concerns, national security issue,

    The national security concerns have become a new factor in Beijing’s long-running campaign … China’s Ministry of State Security last month accused a researcher of leaking “important technical details” while trying to win acceptance of papers by international journals and academic conferences …

    China’s science policy has been shifting from emphasis on global collaboration and publication in international journals towards tighter controls on how knowledge is shared overseas. The change comes amid geopolitical tensions and the country’s rapid technological advance …

    China’s security ministry in June warned that submissions to international conferences, publications in foreign journals, cross-border academic exchanges and overseas collaborative research must all “strictly” follow the requirements of “review before public disclosure” and “approval before external release” …

    One Chinese scholar in materials science said he had stopped submitting research to foreign journals because it had become “difficult” to pass security reviews, which he said were “unclear and insufficiently objective” and part of a process that discouraged overseas publication … [Here is an archived version of the article.]

    So, again it is primarily China where knowledge is not free. Your argumentation in this thread can only be interpreted as an attempt to distract from illegal Chinese activities. Nothing what China does is about free knowledge, let alone for the benefit ‘of all of mankind,’ It’s rather the exact opposite.

    @TimothyOilypants@lemmy.ca

    • TimothyOilpants@lemmy.ca
      1·
      8 days ago

      You see no irony in your “rebuttal” to my point being locked behind a Western paywall?

      It seems clear that you’ll continue to avoid real discussion and dismiss my perspective with some conspiracy minded magical thinking regardless of how this “conversation” proceeds…

      You’ve made no attempt to rationalize or justify your opposition. You’re using ad hominem attacks to imply the blanket superiority of your moral position without any logical connective tissue. “Someone has a different opinion to me? They must be a Chinese propagandist!”

      If you don’t have an actual counter-argument to present, I’m not interested in indulging further.

      • Sepia@mander.xyzOP
        11·
        8 days ago

        You’re right, that’s waste of time. The topic here is a suspected Chinese espionage against Canada, we should not continue in this distraction.

        • TimothyOilpants@lemmy.ca
          1·
          8 days ago

          You’re right, that’s waste of time. The topic here is a suspected Chinese espionage against Canada, we should not continue in this distraction.

          See! Now THAT is how you write a response that reads like propaganda!