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#6 The Hacker News general August 19, 2026 at 13:12 UTC

SilkParasite Espionage Campaign Targets Central Asian Governments with Five New RATs

By [email protected] (The Hacker News)

AI Summary

A newly identified Chinese-nexus espionage operation dubbed SilkParasite, linked to FamousSparrow, has been targeting Central Asian government bodies since late 2025 using seven RAT families — five previously undocumented: DriveSilkRAT, CookiETagRAT, NomadRAT, GoginRAT, and NodeEdgeRAT. The campaign employs AI-assisted malware development and spear-phishing for initial access, reflecting a broader pattern of Chinese APT investment in bespoke tooling for regional geopolitical intelligence collection. Security teams supporting Central Asian government networks should hunt for indicators associated with these novel RAT families.

Relevance score: 83.0/100

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