26 January 2026
Beijing's Digital Ninjas Strike Again: Telnet Exploits, Power Grid Hacks and Your VSCode is Spying on You
Red Alert: China's Daily Cyber Moves
About
This is your Red Alert: China's Daily Cyber Moves podcast.
Hey listeners, Ting here, your go-to cyber sleuth on all things China hacking mayhem. Buckle up, because the past few days have been a red alert frenzy with Beijing's digital ninjas probing US defenses like it's their daily tai chi. Let's dive into the chaos starting January 22nd, when TXOne Networks spotted the first wave of exploits hitting CVE-2026-24061 in GNU Inetutils Telnet—yeah, that dusty old protocol everyone's forgotten. Attackers from China-linked IPs, alongside Brazil and Canada probes, shifted from scanning to full rootkit drops, weaponizing telnet daemons to burrow into servers. By January 24th, WIU Cybersecurity Center reported a China-linked APT sneaking into secure email gateways, while Cisco Talos fingered UAT-8837, a Beijing-backed crew exploiting a Sitecore zero-day to infiltrate North American critical infrastructure since last year—think power grids and water plants, echoing that Volt Typhoon playbook from 2023.
Fast-forward to today, January 26th, and CISA's dropping emergency bombshells. Their directive on F5 BIG-IP flaws—after a nation-state actor, fingers pointing east, swiped source code from Seattle-based F5's dev labs back in August—orders federal agencies like Justice and State to patch by October or risk total network takeover. Nick Anderson from CISA called it an "imminent risk" for credential theft and lateral moves. No direct attribution yet, but the timing screams China supply chain sabotage, prepping for blackouts like the US pulled on Caracas via ICS hacks on January 3rd—malware flapping breakers, faking normal readings à la Stuxnet.
Timeline's brutal: January 22 probes escalate to exploits by 23rd, CISA KEV adds VMware vCenter CVE-2024-37079 and Zimbra flaws actively exploited. Microsoft's flagging AitM phishing on energy firms via SharePoint, and BleepingComputer notes VSCode extensions beaming dev data to China servers—1.5 million installs! Defensive moves? Listeners, inventory your F5s, FortiGates, and telnet relics now; patch VMware and Zimbra yesterday. Segment ICS like your life depends on it—because in escalation scenarios, this dormant footholds light up during Taiwan flare-ups or US elections, syncing with Storm Fern threats CISA warned could wreck infrastructure.
If unchecked, we're staring at Industroyer 2.0: grids down, radars blind, economy in flames. China's not blinking—Breached Company whispers of their own insider leaking nuke data to us, but that's deflection. Stay vigilant, rotate those creds, and air-gap the crown jewels.
Thanks for tuning in, listeners—subscribe for more cyber spice! This has been a Quiet Please production, for more check out quietplease.ai.
For more http://www.quietplease.ai
Get the best deals https://amzn.to/3ODvOta
This content was created in partnership and with the help of Artificial Intelligence AI
Hey listeners, Ting here, your go-to cyber sleuth on all things China hacking mayhem. Buckle up, because the past few days have been a red alert frenzy with Beijing's digital ninjas probing US defenses like it's their daily tai chi. Let's dive into the chaos starting January 22nd, when TXOne Networks spotted the first wave of exploits hitting CVE-2026-24061 in GNU Inetutils Telnet—yeah, that dusty old protocol everyone's forgotten. Attackers from China-linked IPs, alongside Brazil and Canada probes, shifted from scanning to full rootkit drops, weaponizing telnet daemons to burrow into servers. By January 24th, WIU Cybersecurity Center reported a China-linked APT sneaking into secure email gateways, while Cisco Talos fingered UAT-8837, a Beijing-backed crew exploiting a Sitecore zero-day to infiltrate North American critical infrastructure since last year—think power grids and water plants, echoing that Volt Typhoon playbook from 2023.
Fast-forward to today, January 26th, and CISA's dropping emergency bombshells. Their directive on F5 BIG-IP flaws—after a nation-state actor, fingers pointing east, swiped source code from Seattle-based F5's dev labs back in August—orders federal agencies like Justice and State to patch by October or risk total network takeover. Nick Anderson from CISA called it an "imminent risk" for credential theft and lateral moves. No direct attribution yet, but the timing screams China supply chain sabotage, prepping for blackouts like the US pulled on Caracas via ICS hacks on January 3rd—malware flapping breakers, faking normal readings à la Stuxnet.
Timeline's brutal: January 22 probes escalate to exploits by 23rd, CISA KEV adds VMware vCenter CVE-2024-37079 and Zimbra flaws actively exploited. Microsoft's flagging AitM phishing on energy firms via SharePoint, and BleepingComputer notes VSCode extensions beaming dev data to China servers—1.5 million installs! Defensive moves? Listeners, inventory your F5s, FortiGates, and telnet relics now; patch VMware and Zimbra yesterday. Segment ICS like your life depends on it—because in escalation scenarios, this dormant footholds light up during Taiwan flare-ups or US elections, syncing with Storm Fern threats CISA warned could wreck infrastructure.
If unchecked, we're staring at Industroyer 2.0: grids down, radars blind, economy in flames. China's not blinking—Breached Company whispers of their own insider leaking nuke data to us, but that's deflection. Stay vigilant, rotate those creds, and air-gap the crown jewels.
Thanks for tuning in, listeners—subscribe for more cyber spice! This has been a Quiet Please production, for more check out quietplease.ai.
For more http://www.quietplease.ai
Get the best deals https://amzn.to/3ODvOta
This content was created in partnership and with the help of Artificial Intelligence AI