02 February 2026
Notepad Plus Plus Hacked: China's Sneaky Text Editor Takeover That Tech Bros Totally Missed
Red Alert: China's Daily Cyber Moves
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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 chaos. Buckle up, because the past few days have been a red alert frenzy with Chinese state-backed crews dropping bombs on US interests—think supply chain sneak attacks and backdoor blitzes that make SolarWinds look like child's play.
Flash back to today, February 2nd, 2026: TechCrunch dropped the mic with Notepad++ developer Don Ho confirming Chinese government hackers hijacked his popular open-source text editor's update servers from June to December 2025. Security researcher Kevin Beaumont first spotted it, revealing how these creeps exploited a bug on Notepad++'s shared hosting setup to redirect select users—mostly orgs with East Asia ties—to a malicious server. Boom: hands-on keyboard access for espionage, no mass chaos, just surgical strikes. Don Ho's blog nails it as "highly selective targeting," echoing Russia's SolarWinds playbook that hit US agencies like Homeland Security and State Department. Patching that bug in November cut 'em off by early December, but the damage? Infected endpoints spilling secrets.
Rewind a bit: Just days ago on January 28th, Western Illinois University cybersecurity news flagged Mustang Panda—aka Earth Preta or Twill Typhoon—pushing an updated COOLCLIENT backdoor against government targets for data heists. Same day, Google warned of active exploits on WinRAR's CVE-2025-8088, with Chinese nation-state actors joining Russians to drop payloads. Cisco Talos on January 30th exposed UAT-8099 hammering IIS servers in Asia, but the tech trail screams spillover risks to US networks via VPNs and cloud links.
Timeline's brutal: Late 2025 supply chain hits ramp up, January 28th backdoor waves, January 30th server squats, exploding into today's Notepad++ reveal. CISA's been screaming with KEV updates on exploited flaws like VMware's CVE-2024-37079, urging federal feds to patch or perish—no direct China callout, but the pattern fits.
Escalation? If Mustang Panda scales COOLCLIENT to US critical infra, pair it with Notepad++ style updates on dev tools like VS Code, and we're talking widespread footholds. Defend now: Audit update mechanisms, enforce SBOMs for open-source, segment dev environments, and hunt for anomalies with EDR like CrowdStrike. MFA everywhere, patch WinRAR yesterday, and block IIS exploits via WAFs.
Listeners, stay vigilant—China's cyber orchestra is tuning up for symphony of pain. Thanks for tuning in, smash that subscribe button for more intel drops. 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 chaos. Buckle up, because the past few days have been a red alert frenzy with Chinese state-backed crews dropping bombs on US interests—think supply chain sneak attacks and backdoor blitzes that make SolarWinds look like child's play.
Flash back to today, February 2nd, 2026: TechCrunch dropped the mic with Notepad++ developer Don Ho confirming Chinese government hackers hijacked his popular open-source text editor's update servers from June to December 2025. Security researcher Kevin Beaumont first spotted it, revealing how these creeps exploited a bug on Notepad++'s shared hosting setup to redirect select users—mostly orgs with East Asia ties—to a malicious server. Boom: hands-on keyboard access for espionage, no mass chaos, just surgical strikes. Don Ho's blog nails it as "highly selective targeting," echoing Russia's SolarWinds playbook that hit US agencies like Homeland Security and State Department. Patching that bug in November cut 'em off by early December, but the damage? Infected endpoints spilling secrets.
Rewind a bit: Just days ago on January 28th, Western Illinois University cybersecurity news flagged Mustang Panda—aka Earth Preta or Twill Typhoon—pushing an updated COOLCLIENT backdoor against government targets for data heists. Same day, Google warned of active exploits on WinRAR's CVE-2025-8088, with Chinese nation-state actors joining Russians to drop payloads. Cisco Talos on January 30th exposed UAT-8099 hammering IIS servers in Asia, but the tech trail screams spillover risks to US networks via VPNs and cloud links.
Timeline's brutal: Late 2025 supply chain hits ramp up, January 28th backdoor waves, January 30th server squats, exploding into today's Notepad++ reveal. CISA's been screaming with KEV updates on exploited flaws like VMware's CVE-2024-37079, urging federal feds to patch or perish—no direct China callout, but the pattern fits.
Escalation? If Mustang Panda scales COOLCLIENT to US critical infra, pair it with Notepad++ style updates on dev tools like VS Code, and we're talking widespread footholds. Defend now: Audit update mechanisms, enforce SBOMs for open-source, segment dev environments, and hunt for anomalies with EDR like CrowdStrike. MFA everywhere, patch WinRAR yesterday, and block IIS exploits via WAFs.
Listeners, stay vigilant—China's cyber orchestra is tuning up for symphony of pain. Thanks for tuning in, smash that subscribe button for more intel drops. 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