Posted on 02/17/2026 8:47:57 PM PST by SeekAndFind
An analysis released by Google this month showed that the U.S. defense industrial base—a network of public and private entities used to develop or maintain military weapons systems—has sustained cyberattacks from groups and criminal organizations from China, Russia, and North Korea in recent months.
The report, released on Feb. 10 by Google Threat Intelligence, found that the Chinese regime and associated groups continue “to represent by volume the most active threat to entities in the defense industrial base,” which it said can pose “significant risk to the defense and aerospace sector.”
Google’s report added that it “has observed more China-nexus cyber espionage missions directly targeting defense and aerospace industry than from any other state-sponsored actors over the last two years,” as such groups have “used a broad range of tactics in operations.”
“But the hallmark of many operations has been their exploitation of edge devices to gain initial access,” it said, referring to hardware components positioned at the edge of a network.
“We have also observed China-nexus threat groups leverage ORB networks for reconnaissance against defense industrial targets, which complicates detection and attribution.”
Late last year, Canadian and U.S. officials warned that Chinese state-backed hacking groups have targeted U.S. government entities and private companies, gaining long-term access to their systems.
In July 2025, Microsoft also warned it had observed two China-based hacking groups, Linen Typhoon and Violet Typhoon, using vulnerabilities in SharePoint, Microsoft’s collaboration software.
As for Russia, Google said in its report that groups associated with Moscow have focused on defense companies that support technologies used in the Russia–Ukraine war, namely companies linked to drones.
“As next-generation capabilities are being operationalized in this environment, Russia-nexus threat actors and hacktivists are seeking to compromise defense contractors alongside military assets and systems, with a focus on organizations involved with unmanned aircraft systems (UAS),” the tech giant said.
“This includes targeting defense companies directly, using themes mimicking their products and systems in intrusions against military organizations and personnel.”
State-sponsored hackers, meanwhile, have leveraged Google’s own AI tool, Gemini, during cyberattacks, it found.
One Chinese-linked organization known as “UNC2970” has frequently targeted defense companies and impersonated corporate recruiters in hacking campaigns, Google said.
They’ve used Gemini to conduct open-source intelligence to “profile high-value targets to support campaign planning and reconnaissance,” including searches for relevant information on defense and cybersecurity companies, it said.
The threat posed by North Korea has grown since 2019 as officials in the regime have attempted to pose as IT workers to apply for jobs at defense-related organizations, Google said.
Last July, the Department of Justice announced it had disrupted an operation that included searches of 29 locations in more than a dozen states suspected of being connected to laptops used, in part, to obtain remote jobs at more than 100 American companies.
In one instance, North Korea-linked actors stole sensitive data from a California defense company that was involved in AI development, according to Google.
In a separate incident, a Maryland-based individual was sentenced to 15 months in prison for facilitating a North Korean-linked scheme and coordinating with an alleged regime IT worker. The person, Minh Phuong Ngoc Vong, was hired by a Virginia-based company to perform software development for a defense contractor, it added.
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Some hack from afar ( I hate technology ) but others are living here or pretending to be college students.
Those we can deal with ourselves. Sorry, justice system and government-——do your bumbling Keystone Cops routines on the missing woman case.
The Obozo and Biden used to sell it to them, now they have to work for it.
Google is a advertising company. All their “technology” is used to put up paid billboards on the information super highway. They need to be broken up into 100 different pieces.
How would that stop Russian and Chinese hackers?
*** How would that stop Russian and Chinese hackers? ***
Break up the tech monopolies into 100 different pieces. That is basically the answer to all internet problems.
Hasn’t this been happening every day for decades?
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