Deutsche Gesellschaft für Osteuropakunde (DGO)
March 30, 2025
•[ espionage, data leak, state-sponsored attack ]
In late March 2025, German officials reported a cyber-espionage incident targeting the Deutsche Gesellschaft fr Osteuropakunde (DGO), a nonprofit academic association focused on Eastern Europe. Investigators attributed the intrusion to Russias Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR), also known as Midnight Blizzard, APT29, or NOBELIUM. Attackers accessed email servers and internal communications for intelligence-gathering purposes. No data encryption or operational disruption was reported, indicating a stealthy exploitation of application servers.
Undisclosed organizations in China
May 27, 2025
•[ cyberattacks, espionage ]
China publicly accused individuals allegedly linked to Taiwans military of cyberattacks and espionage against Chinese entities.
Kurdish forces
May 14, 2025
•[ espionage, vulnerability, zero-day ]
Turkey-linked espionage operators exploited a zero-day in Output Messenger to surveil Iraq-based Kurdish forces, collecting communications and device data; Microsoft attributed the activity to a Turkey-aligned group focused on intelligence collection.
Fanpage.it / Francesco Cancellato
January 31, 2025
•[ spyware, espionage, zero-click ]
Francesco Cancellato, editor-in-chief of Fanpage.it, was targeted with the Israeli-made Graphite spyware developed by Paragon Solutions, delivered via WhatsApp zero-click exploit. Citizen Lab and CPJ linked the campaign to a likely state client of Paragon, with political-espionage motives tied to Fanpages undercover investigation exposing neo-fascist youth elements within Italys ruling party. No confirmed infection or data exfiltration publicly reported.
Ukrainian government and military entities
April 1, 2025
•[ malware, data leak, espionage ]
Russian FSB 18th Center for Information Security (Gamaredon) deployed updated GammaSteel malware to exfiltrate sensitive data from Ukrainian government and defense networks in an ongoing espionage campaign; no operational disruption reported.
Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC)
February 11, 2025
•[ data leak, email compromise, espionage ]
In February 2025, the U.S. Department of the Treasurys Office of the Comptroller of the Currency detected unauthorized access to its Microsoft 365 email environment. The compromise, which persisted for months before discovery, exposed roughly 103 mailboxes and more than 150,000 emails containing sensitive financial supervisory information. No attribution has been made public, but the incident exhibited characteristics of an espionage-focused breach. No encryption, ransom demand, or operational disruption was reported.
Polish Space Agency (Polsa)
March 2, 2025
•[ cyberattack, network intrusion, service disruption ]
The Polish Space Agency (POLSA) went offline after detecting a cyberattack that forced it to disconnect its internal network from the internet to contain the incident. National cybersecurity teams, including CSIRT NASK and CSIRT MON, were engaged to assist in investigating and restoring operations. While POLSA did not disclose specific details, internal sources suggested that email systems were compromised. As a member of the European Space Agency, POLSA temporarily suspended several digital services while ensuring containment, system recovery, and investigation into potential espionage or disruption motives behind the attack.
Organizations in Myanmar
January 15, 2024
•[ espionage, backdoor, malware ]
Mustang Panda leveraged mavinject.exe and DLL side-loading to inject a ToneShell family backdoor into processes on targeted Myanmar organisation endpoints to enable espionage and persistent access.
Ukrainian government and critical infrastructure organizations
September 25, 2024
•[ phishing, malware, espionage ]
Russian nation-state operators exploited a zero-day vulnerability in 7-Zip (CVE-2025-0411) beginning in September 2024 to deliver SmokeLoader malware through spearphishing campaigns targeting Ukrainian government and critical infrastructure entities. The campaign bypassed Windows Mark-of-the-Web protections to execute payloads and conduct espionage activities. No specific victims or data volumes have been disclosed.
Multiple South Korean government and business entities
February 12, 2025
•[ phishing, espionage ]
Spear-phishing campaign leveraging LNK and PowerShell scripts deployed by North Koreas RGB 3rd Technical Surveillance Bureau (Kimsuky) targeting South Korean government, defense, and cryptocurrency sectors.
Multiple Organizations in Asia
February 6, 2025
•[ espionage, backdoor, credential theft ]
Evasive Panda, a Chinese state-sponsored group operating under the Ministry of State Securitys Guangdong State Security Department / Technical Reconnaissance Bureau, deployed a custom SSH backdoor across enterprise network devices to exfiltrate credentials and maintain long-term covert access in espionage operations identified by Cisco Talos in February 2025.
163.com Users
February 4, 2025
•[ phishing, espionage ]
The Taiwanese-linked espionage group GreenSpot APT (aka PoisonVine / APT-Q-20) created spoofed 163.com domains and fake download pages to harvest email credentials from users in mainland China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan. Hunt.io attributed the campaigns infrastructure to Taiwan but no government department link has been identified.
Multiple Japanese Targets (MSPs, Cloud Partners)
March 1, 2025
•[ espionage, technology ]
UNC5221 activity included compromises of Japanese managed-service providers as part of the BRICKSTORM espionage operation active in 2025.
Singapore Cloud / Hosting Providers
March 1, 2025
•[ espionage, technology ]
UNC5221 leveraged Singapore hosting infrastructure for staging and potential local access during the 2025 BRICKSTORM campaign; targeting aligns with Chinese state-linked espionage.
Multiple German Targets (Corporate Legal, Professional Services)
March 1, 2025
•[ espionage, technology ]
German professional-services and corporate-law entities were likely compromised by UNC5221 during the 2025 BRICKSTORM espionage campaign exploiting Ivanti edge devices.
Multiple Netherlands Targets (BPO, MSP Providers)
March 1, 2025
•[ espionage, technology ]
UNC5221 compromised Netherlands-based BPO and MSP providers to gain secondary access to client environments; activity attributed to Chinese cyber-espionage operations.
Multiple U.K. Targets (Professional Services, Law Firms)
March 1, 2025
•[ espionage, technology ]
UNC5221 targeted British professional-services firms for espionage, part of the broader BRICKSTORM campaign observed globally in 2025.
Multiple U.S. Targets (Law Firms, SaaS, Tech Firms)
March 1, 2025
•[ espionage, malware, technology ]
Chinese APT UNC5221 deployed the BRICKSTORM backdoor to infiltrate U.S. law firms and SaaS providers for intelligence collection. Campaign active from March through September 2025.
Multiple devices at undisclosed telecommunications firm(s)
May 1, 2025
•[ social, espionage, phishing ]
UNC1549 (Subtle Snail) compromised multiple devices at an undisclosed telecommunications firm in France using LinkedIn job-lures and the MINIBIKE backdoor; Azure-hosted C2 infrastructure was observed. No confirmed data exfiltration volumes or operational disruption reported.
Multiple U.S. defense contractors
July 1, 2024
•[ espionage, malware, government ]
Between July 2024 and July 2025, the Chinese state-linked group RedNovember, operating under the Ministry of State Security (MSS), conducted an espionage campaign exploiting internet-facing network devices and Outlook Web Access systems to infiltrate at least two U.S. defense contractors. Attackers deployed the Go-based backdoor Pantegana, Cobalt Strike, and SparkRAT for reconnaissance and persistence, exfiltrating sensitive defense-related data.
