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Ooh, China's Cyber Snoopers Caught Red-Handed in F5, Cisco Hacks! Patch Now or Prepare for Spying
This is your China Hack Report: Daily US Tech Defense podcast.
Hey listeners, Ting here with today's China Hack Report—your digital defense wingman in the never-ending cyber dogfight between Beijing and Washington. Strap in, because the last 24 hours have unleashed some jaw-dropping developments that’ll make even the most seasoned sysadmins clutch their coffee.
Let’s start with the bombshell that landed Wednesday: Chinese state-backed hackers were burrowed inside F5’s networks for nearly two years. That’s not just unfortunate, it’s catastrophic, seeing as F5's BIG-IP platform props up 85% of Fortune 500 companies and countless federal systems. Bloomberg revealed the adversaries basically turned F5’s own software into a revolving door; an employee oversight left a digital window wide open, and the attackers made themselves comfy, snatching source code, config files, and—most critically—secret vulnerability reports. Once inside, they deployed stealthy malware dubbed Brickstorm, quietly infecting VMware virtual machines and deeper infrastructure while lying dormant for twelve months. Not exactly the kind of “persistence” you want on your resume.
F5 didn’t realize the extent of the situation until August 2025, triggering an all-hands-on-deck response from CEO Francois Locoh-Donou, Google’s Mandiant, and CrowdStrike. CISA called the whole affair a “significant cyber threat targeting federal networks” and issued an emergency directive: if you’ve got F5 gear online, patch or disconnect before October 22—or risk waving at the PLA through a backdoor. The UK’s National Cyber Security Centre amplified the alert, warning attackers might piggyback on the F5 breach to find fresh vulnerabilities across the sector.
And while US agencies scramble for patches, Senator Bill Cassidy fired off a formal warning to Cisco over critical vulnerabilities affecting their network infrastructure, referencing active exploits tied to—wait for it—China, Russia, and Iran. Cassidy’s grilling Cisco CEO Chuck Robbins about patching strategies and how customers can keep up, especially since nearly half of US firms still don’t have a Chief Information Security Officer. CISA isn’t pulling punches—disconnect or update at once, with Citrix and Cisco appliances also flagged for live exploitation.
On the malware front, Mandiant confirmed Brickstorm was the weapon of choice inside F5, and CISA has added related exploits to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog. At the tactical level, threat actors are leveraging public exploit code for everything from F5’s config exposure to upload/download proxy bugs in Cisco gear. If you’re a defender, now’s the time to brush up on your threat hunting guides and tighten log retention—those attackers are known to wait out your deletion cycles.
Meanwhile, China has gone on the offensive diplomatically, with its Ministry of State Security accusing the US NSA of hacking the National Time Service Center in Xi’an. The claim is they’ve got “irrefutable evidence” of US espionage targeting China’s precision timing infrastructure—a foundation for GPS, communications, and satellite ops. Beijing says the NSA used 42 flavors of custom cyber weapons plus pilfered credentials to sneak past internal controls, but so far, their public evidence is mostly geopolitical fireworks.
Immediate defense steps? CISA wants every federal org running F5 patched ASAP and recommends organizations audit for Brickstorm indicators, bolster access control, and review log-deletion policies. Cisco, Citrix, and VMware admins—look alive, patch everything, and chase your vendors for the latest security bulletins.
That’s it for today’s China Hack Report. If you want to keep your digital fortress standing, follow the advisories, subscribe for daily updates, and remember: the only way to hack it in cyber is to never get hacked. Thanks for tuning in—don’t forget to subscribe. This has been a quiet please production, for more check out quiet please dot ai.
For more http://www.quietplease.ai
Get the best deals https://amzn.to/3ODvOta
This content was created in partnership and with the help of Artificial Intelligence AI
Hey listeners, Ting here with today's China Hack Report—your digital defense wingman in the never-ending cyber dogfight between Beijing and Washington. Strap in, because the last 24 hours have unleashed some jaw-dropping developments that’ll make even the most seasoned sysadmins clutch their coffee.
Let’s start with the bombshell that landed Wednesday: Chinese state-backed hackers were burrowed inside F5’s networks for nearly two years. That’s not just unfortunate, it’s catastrophic, seeing as F5's BIG-IP platform props up 85% of Fortune 500 companies and countless federal systems. Bloomberg revealed the adversaries basically turned F5’s own software into a revolving door; an employee oversight left a digital window wide open, and the attackers made themselves comfy, snatching source code, config files, and—most critically—secret vulnerability reports. Once inside, they deployed stealthy malware dubbed Brickstorm, quietly infecting VMware virtual machines and deeper infrastructure while lying dormant for twelve months. Not exactly the kind of “persistence” you want on your resume.
F5 didn’t realize the extent of the situation until August 2025, triggering an all-hands-on-deck response from CEO Francois Locoh-Donou, Google’s Mandiant, and CrowdStrike. CISA called the whole affair a “significant cyber threat targeting federal networks” and issued an emergency directive: if you’ve got F5 gear online, patch or disconnect before October 22—or risk waving at the PLA through a backdoor. The UK’s National Cyber Security Centre amplified the alert, warning attackers might piggyback on the F5 breach to find fresh vulnerabilities across the sector.
And while US agencies scramble for patches, Senator Bill Cassidy fired off a formal warning to Cisco over critical vulnerabilities affecting their network infrastructure, referencing active exploits tied to—wait for it—China, Russia, and Iran. Cassidy’s grilling Cisco CEO Chuck Robbins about patching strategies and how customers can keep up, especially since nearly half of US firms still don’t have a Chief Information Security Officer. CISA isn’t pulling punches—disconnect or update at once, with Citrix and Cisco appliances also flagged for live exploitation.
On the malware front, Mandiant confirmed Brickstorm was the weapon of choice inside F5, and CISA has added related exploits to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog. At the tactical level, threat actors are leveraging public exploit code for everything from F5’s config exposure to upload/download proxy bugs in Cisco gear. If you’re a defender, now’s the time to brush up on your threat hunting guides and tighten log retention—those attackers are known to wait out your deletion cycles.
Meanwhile, China has gone on the offensive diplomatically, with its Ministry of State Security accusing the US NSA of hacking the National Time Service Center in Xi’an. The claim is they’ve got “irrefutable evidence” of US espionage targeting China’s precision timing infrastructure—a foundation for GPS, communications, and satellite ops. Beijing says the NSA used 42 flavors of custom cyber weapons plus pilfered credentials to sneak past internal controls, but so far, their public evidence is mostly geopolitical fireworks.
Immediate defense steps? CISA wants every federal org running F5 patched ASAP and recommends organizations audit for Brickstorm indicators, bolster access control, and review log-deletion policies. Cisco, Citrix, and VMware admins—look alive, patch everything, and chase your vendors for the latest security bulletins.
That’s it for today’s China Hack Report. If you want to keep your digital fortress standing, follow the advisories, subscribe for daily updates, and remember: the only way to hack it in cyber is to never get hacked. Thanks for tuning in—don’t forget to subscribe. This has been a quiet please production, for more check out quiet please dot ai.
For more http://www.quietplease.ai
Get the best deals https://amzn.to/3ODvOta
This content was created in partnership and with the help of Artificial Intelligence AI
View all episodes
By Inception Point AiThis is your China Hack Report: Daily US Tech Defense podcast.
Hey listeners, Ting here with today's China Hack Report—your digital defense wingman in the never-ending cyber dogfight between Beijing and Washington. Strap in, because the last 24 hours have unleashed some jaw-dropping developments that’ll make even the most seasoned sysadmins clutch their coffee.
Let’s start with the bombshell that landed Wednesday: Chinese state-backed hackers were burrowed inside F5’s networks for nearly two years. That’s not just unfortunate, it’s catastrophic, seeing as F5's BIG-IP platform props up 85% of Fortune 500 companies and countless federal systems. Bloomberg revealed the adversaries basically turned F5’s own software into a revolving door; an employee oversight left a digital window wide open, and the attackers made themselves comfy, snatching source code, config files, and—most critically—secret vulnerability reports. Once inside, they deployed stealthy malware dubbed Brickstorm, quietly infecting VMware virtual machines and deeper infrastructure while lying dormant for twelve months. Not exactly the kind of “persistence” you want on your resume.
F5 didn’t realize the extent of the situation until August 2025, triggering an all-hands-on-deck response from CEO Francois Locoh-Donou, Google’s Mandiant, and CrowdStrike. CISA called the whole affair a “significant cyber threat targeting federal networks” and issued an emergency directive: if you’ve got F5 gear online, patch or disconnect before October 22—or risk waving at the PLA through a backdoor. The UK’s National Cyber Security Centre amplified the alert, warning attackers might piggyback on the F5 breach to find fresh vulnerabilities across the sector.
And while US agencies scramble for patches, Senator Bill Cassidy fired off a formal warning to Cisco over critical vulnerabilities affecting their network infrastructure, referencing active exploits tied to—wait for it—China, Russia, and Iran. Cassidy’s grilling Cisco CEO Chuck Robbins about patching strategies and how customers can keep up, especially since nearly half of US firms still don’t have a Chief Information Security Officer. CISA isn’t pulling punches—disconnect or update at once, with Citrix and Cisco appliances also flagged for live exploitation.
On the malware front, Mandiant confirmed Brickstorm was the weapon of choice inside F5, and CISA has added related exploits to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog. At the tactical level, threat actors are leveraging public exploit code for everything from F5’s config exposure to upload/download proxy bugs in Cisco gear. If you’re a defender, now’s the time to brush up on your threat hunting guides and tighten log retention—those attackers are known to wait out your deletion cycles.
Meanwhile, China has gone on the offensive diplomatically, with its Ministry of State Security accusing the US NSA of hacking the National Time Service Center in Xi’an. The claim is they’ve got “irrefutable evidence” of US espionage targeting China’s precision timing infrastructure—a foundation for GPS, communications, and satellite ops. Beijing says the NSA used 42 flavors of custom cyber weapons plus pilfered credentials to sneak past internal controls, but so far, their public evidence is mostly geopolitical fireworks.
Immediate defense steps? CISA wants every federal org running F5 patched ASAP and recommends organizations audit for Brickstorm indicators, bolster access control, and review log-deletion policies. Cisco, Citrix, and VMware admins—look alive, patch everything, and chase your vendors for the latest security bulletins.
That’s it for today’s China Hack Report. If you want to keep your digital fortress standing, follow the advisories, subscribe for daily updates, and remember: the only way to hack it in cyber is to never get hacked. Thanks for tuning in—don’t forget to subscribe. This has been a quiet please production, for more check out quiet please dot ai.
For more http://www.quietplease.ai
Get the best deals https://amzn.to/3ODvOta
This content was created in partnership and with the help of Artificial Intelligence AI
Hey listeners, Ting here with today's China Hack Report—your digital defense wingman in the never-ending cyber dogfight between Beijing and Washington. Strap in, because the last 24 hours have unleashed some jaw-dropping developments that’ll make even the most seasoned sysadmins clutch their coffee.
Let’s start with the bombshell that landed Wednesday: Chinese state-backed hackers were burrowed inside F5’s networks for nearly two years. That’s not just unfortunate, it’s catastrophic, seeing as F5's BIG-IP platform props up 85% of Fortune 500 companies and countless federal systems. Bloomberg revealed the adversaries basically turned F5’s own software into a revolving door; an employee oversight left a digital window wide open, and the attackers made themselves comfy, snatching source code, config files, and—most critically—secret vulnerability reports. Once inside, they deployed stealthy malware dubbed Brickstorm, quietly infecting VMware virtual machines and deeper infrastructure while lying dormant for twelve months. Not exactly the kind of “persistence” you want on your resume.
F5 didn’t realize the extent of the situation until August 2025, triggering an all-hands-on-deck response from CEO Francois Locoh-Donou, Google’s Mandiant, and CrowdStrike. CISA called the whole affair a “significant cyber threat targeting federal networks” and issued an emergency directive: if you’ve got F5 gear online, patch or disconnect before October 22—or risk waving at the PLA through a backdoor. The UK’s National Cyber Security Centre amplified the alert, warning attackers might piggyback on the F5 breach to find fresh vulnerabilities across the sector.
And while US agencies scramble for patches, Senator Bill Cassidy fired off a formal warning to Cisco over critical vulnerabilities affecting their network infrastructure, referencing active exploits tied to—wait for it—China, Russia, and Iran. Cassidy’s grilling Cisco CEO Chuck Robbins about patching strategies and how customers can keep up, especially since nearly half of US firms still don’t have a Chief Information Security Officer. CISA isn’t pulling punches—disconnect or update at once, with Citrix and Cisco appliances also flagged for live exploitation.
On the malware front, Mandiant confirmed Brickstorm was the weapon of choice inside F5, and CISA has added related exploits to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog. At the tactical level, threat actors are leveraging public exploit code for everything from F5’s config exposure to upload/download proxy bugs in Cisco gear. If you’re a defender, now’s the time to brush up on your threat hunting guides and tighten log retention—those attackers are known to wait out your deletion cycles.
Meanwhile, China has gone on the offensive diplomatically, with its Ministry of State Security accusing the US NSA of hacking the National Time Service Center in Xi’an. The claim is they’ve got “irrefutable evidence” of US espionage targeting China’s precision timing infrastructure—a foundation for GPS, communications, and satellite ops. Beijing says the NSA used 42 flavors of custom cyber weapons plus pilfered credentials to sneak past internal controls, but so far, their public evidence is mostly geopolitical fireworks.
Immediate defense steps? CISA wants every federal org running F5 patched ASAP and recommends organizations audit for Brickstorm indicators, bolster access control, and review log-deletion policies. Cisco, Citrix, and VMware admins—look alive, patch everything, and chase your vendors for the latest security bulletins.
That’s it for today’s China Hack Report. If you want to keep your digital fortress standing, follow the advisories, subscribe for daily updates, and remember: the only way to hack it in cyber is to never get hacked. Thanks for tuning in—don’t forget to subscribe. This has been a quiet please production, for more check out quiet please dot ai.
For more http://www.quietplease.ai
Get the best deals https://amzn.to/3ODvOta
This content was created in partnership and with the help of Artificial Intelligence AI