China hijacked & used an American hacking tool for years without detection

A security firm, Check point has uncovered evidence that a Chinese group of hackers called APT31 was successful in gaining access to a Windows hacking tool, EpMe. The tool was developed and was under utilization by a group of hackers associated with the National Security Agency (NSA).

How have nation-states managed to steal clandestine cyber weapons? @_CPResearch_ reports on a group of Chinese hackers who have cloned a cyber-operative tool that belonged to a US-based #hacking unit. Get the details: https://t.co/OKgLKxniuY pic.twitter.com/7B1dzY9GxP

— Check Point Software (@CheckPointSW) February 22, 2021

According to Check Point, a Chinese group was successful in building their own hacking tool from EpMe code in 2015. The Chinese hackers then used that tool, which Check Point terms as “Jian” or “double-edged sword,” from 2015 until March 2017, when the Windows vulnerability (CVE-2017-0005) it was exploiting was patched by Microsoft.

“Jian was reported to Microsoft by Lockheed Martin’s Computer Incident Response Team, hinting at a possible attack against an American target.”, said a blog post by Check point.

When hackers get hacked. China hijacked and used an American hacking tool for years

Written by Ahsan Zafeer

China’s Tencent Releases Large Language Model, Opens it For Enterprise Use

Apple Reportedly Spending ‘Million of Dollars Each Day’ for AI Training

World’s Largest Wind Turbine Breaks Record For Power Generated In A Single Day-During A Typhoon