Security News > 2020 > May > Chinese Hackers Target Air-Gapped Military Networks

A threat actor believed to be operating out of China has been targeting physically isolated military networks in Taiwan and the Philippines, Trend Micro reports.

Now, Trend Micro reveals that, since December 2014, the threat actor has been leveraging a piece of malware referred to as USBferry to target entities such as military/navy agencies, government institutions, military hospitals, and even a national bank.

To ensure the success of their attacks, the hackers would first target organizations related to military or government, which might employ less robust security, and use these as jumping-off points for attacks.

In one instance, the group compromised a military hospital and used it to move to the military's physically isolated network.

"Tropic Trooper seems to have been targeting air-gapped environments over the past six years; in particular, the group prefers to target military hospitals and national banks as initial footholds. It could be difficult for some military and government offices to have sufficient security controls; protections can be challenged and thus make incident response trickier," Trend Micro notes.

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