Marc Hofer
@marchofer.bsky.social
Journalist ,former East-Africa and Middle East and a few years China. Ex SkyNews, Ex ITV. A few wars, a little bit of “cybersec and China” and other things.
Teaming up with Hunt.io NetAskari got a glimpse into the rapidly expanding landscape of Chinese rapid-malware-construction-kits for malicious Android Apps. Often one stop-shop setups with minimal skill requirements: various-yard-748589--new-blog-flying-bul8h8gss.framer.app/blog/flying-...
A dataset we received via Hunt.io shows that Claude ( old models ) is still tricked into playing "CTF" against actual live targets today in an attempt to hack into systems ( though it seems mainly old model version ) : open.substack.com/pub/netaskar...
Brief access to an unsecured dashboard that showed the live orchestration of a framework to set up ‘water hole attacks’ via Coruna/Darksword exploit-chains, demonstrates how this powerful spy tool is now cleary part of the mass-cyber-crime ecosystem. 1/3
NetAskari talks to Justin Hysler on China’s plan for a national DNS resolver and the country’s cyber sovereignty: open.substack.com/pub/netaskar...
Episode 8: DNS4CN and China's internet sovereignty.
We are revisiting DNS4CN one more time, a topic we covered a while ago based on documents from the famous Geedge leak.
open.substack.com
“Talking Tom” a hardware version of a popular video game and interactive app character, harbors a Chinese LLM that has strict censorship instructions on topics like Taiwan and Xi Jinping’s rule. We did get an insight into its training regiment. Read the report: netaskari.substack.com/p/tom-cat-or...
Surfilter, a Chinese company building hardware firewall systems mainly for the government, had it's firmware binary leaked. A selectionof all the VPNs the system is able to fingerprint ( among many others ) 1/2 : AnyViewer Clash ProtonVPN Tunnelbear TurboVPN V2Ray (and V2RayN) Windscribe …
Meet ‘ZRON’, a full intelligence collection-analysis tool chain, offered by a Chinese company. A recent hack, offered on a CN dark web forum, delivers a fascinating insight into a toolbox of which we have seen echo's before. One-stop-shop, full service and AI enabled.: substack.com/home/post/p-...
Read PART2 of the investigation by NetAskari into the “Dynamic Control Platform for Overseas Personnel”. A glimpse behind the curtain of the Chinese surveillance state. open.substack.com/pub/netaskar...
Sharp Eyes: Mass surveillance of foreigners in China - Part 2
In this follow up story we will now take a deeper dive into other findings with regards to the 'Dynamic Control Platform for Overseas Personnel', that we discussed in part 1.
open.substack.com
Read NetAskari’s fascinating investigation into a mass surveillance system in China, tailored to foreigners and expats for the Ministry of Public Security ( Part 1 and Part 2 are out now ): substack.com/@netaskari/n...
Sharp Eyes: Mass surveillance of foreigners in China - Part 1
A publicly exposed web front reveals new details on a tracking system for foreigners and delivers many insight into the capabilities of security organs to track individuals in real time.
substack.com
Has China’s National Super Computer Center suffered one of the biggest data hacks of history? netaskari.substack.com/p/chinas-mas...
China's massive data leak of military secrets ?
The National Super Computer Center in Tianjin seemed to have experienced a massive data leak of whooping 10 PetaByte of internal data, inclusive classified data. Samples have leaked, we took a look.
netaskari.substack.com
全息档案系统: A holistic data storage and analysis system for individuals. We are trying to track China's ability of using big-data to surveil and observe citizens remotely via abandoned dashboards. netaskari.substack.com/p/tracking-c...
Tracking China's mass surveillance capabilities via abandoned online dashboards
You can find many abandoned mock-up dashboard on the China-Net. While often just displaying mundane functionalities, they can reveal interesting developments in the security ecosystem of the country.
netaskari.substack.com
We talked with Dr. Valentin Weber about his research on secure messenger services inside the PLA, their flaws and limitation and how a system obsessed with surveillance, even compromises on security to keep tabs on what their soldiers talk about: open.substack.com/pub/netaskar...
Chinese pen-testers know about the Chinese eco system as much as they know about western tools and techniques. While western researchers often never step inside the Chinese world of red-teams: tinyurl.com/48z9etwk
What's in the box !?
NetAskari got access to a little "toolbox" of a Chinese red-team/pen-tester. Let's explore.
tinyurl.com
See how Chinese red-team / pen-testers see China's e-government infrastructure and witness how they assess security flaws in the govt run service infrastructure ( has diagrams and pictures ) : tinyurl.com/ynp4ahzk
We got our hand on a Chinese DLP program the government and national security agencies use to monitor state employees computers for leakage and usage of confidential documents. Meet 保密管理系统. 1/9
Why do so little internal documents leak from China, compared to its sizable digital administrative infrastructure ? NetAskari got their hands on an internal document monitoring and control software for government workstations: open.substack.com/pub/netaskar...
As the year is coming to an end, here are our picks of the five best stories on netaskari.online . If you have some time over the holidays, please check them out: open.substack.com/pub/netaskar...
An example of an HikVision powered neighborhood surveillance and access-control system, that you can find all across China's cities. In the past often stand-alone, they are increasingly getting integrated into the nation wide "Sharp eyes" ( 雪亮 ) project.
Read our primer on how the big-data analysis system operated by the Chinese police can track people across country, via having almost real time access to their means of travel, bank account activities, phone calls and online activity. netaskari.substack.com/p/smart-poli...
Welcome to PART 2 of NetAskari’s analysis of “Expedition Cloud”, a Cyber Range operated by the Ministry of Public Security of China to improve their offensive cyber capabilities : open.substack.com/pub/netaskar...
Critical strike: China's hacking training grounds (PART 2)
A deep dive into the technical elements of the "Expedition Cloud" Cyber Range designed for the Chinese Ministry of Public Security.
open.substack.com
China’s hacking training grounds, gunning or foreign nations’ critical infrastructure: tinyurl.com/y67z79ve
Internal documents from a Chinese cyber security company reveal how the Ministry of Public Security is commissioning “cyber ranges” to explore attack methods against adversaries digital critical infrastructure: open.substack.com/pub/netaskar...
Critical strike: China's hacking training grounds (PART 1)
Exclusive internal design documents reveal details of China's digital training grounds, set up to attack critical infrastructure of its "major adversaries".
open.substack.com
China created its digital surveillance state with the eager help of US’s BigTech, Dake Kang reports: open.substack.com/pub/netaskar...
Episode 4: State of surveillance - Made in America
An AP investigation reveals deep links of US big tech companies and the Chinese digital surveillance machine.
open.substack.com
Some first thoughts on the KnownSec databreach : open.substack.com/pub/netaskar...
Breaking: KnownSec - Databreach
One of China's most prolific developers of digital forensic tools for the Chinese security services and provider of "cyber weapons" might have undergone a major data leak.
open.substack.com
A new comcept for a locked down DNS for China, will strengthen the country’s digital censorship: open.substack.com/pub/netaskar...
DNS4CN: A Truly Locked-Down DNS for China
China still relies heavily on the global DNS resolution system, creating a lot of headaches for the censors and puts extra strain on the Great Firewall of China. A new system design changes that.
open.substack.com
We interviewed Benjamin Mixon-Baca on his reaearch on Free VPNs, who is behind them and their links to Chinese cyber security companies and ex-PLA members. substack.com/@netaskari/n...
Free VPNs: Security flaws, hidden owners and potential links to the PLA.
Free VPNs are mushrooming in App-Stores. But they come often with a whole rat tail of problems and hidden "features".
substack.com
A patent shows how China’s security services keep tabs on citizens mobile devices combining WiFi-probes and big-data collusion : open.substack.com/pub/netaskar...
Big Data = Big Surveillance
China’s ability to conduct digital surveillance on their population is not particularly new, but connecting those tools to big-data raises their potency.
open.substack.com
Episode 2 of NetAskari’s podcast just dropped : The Locknet - substack.com/home/post/p-...
Episode 2: The Locknet
How China controls the internet and why it matters: Join Jessica Batke and Laura Edelson talking to us about their recent report.
substack.com
“The source told CBS News that [Kash Patel and Dan Bongino] asked for "large, beefy" agents to conduct an arrest of Comey "in full kit," including Kevlar vests and exterior wear emblazoned with the FBI logo.” The leadership of the FBI is now in the hands of infantile psychopaths.
The FBI is weighing an arrest and perp walk for Comey — and suspended an agent for refusing to help, sources say
The FBI is considering carrying out a "showy" arrest and perp walk of the agency's now-indicted ex-Director James Comey, sources tell CBS News.
cbsnews.com
