VERY IMPORTANT

On December 20, 2018 the US Department of Justice indicted two Chinese nationals on charges of computer hacking, conspiracy to commit wire fraud, and aggravated identity theft. The two are alleged members of a hacking group known as menuPass (aka APT10/Stone Panda/Red Apollo/CVNX/Potassium) which according to the indictment, allegedly carried out the illegal activity at the behest of the Chinese Ministry of State Security. The charges in the indictment stem from a lengthy attack campaign called Operation Cloud Hopper that began in 2014 which largely targeted Managed Security Providers (MSPs) to not only steal MSP and clients’ intellectual property but also leverage the networks for further attacks. The US-Cert also published two advisories, TA17-117A and TA18-276B. The first details the activity and the second contained protection, detection, and remediation advice for MSPs and customers.