Chinese hackers reportedly targeting government entities using ‘Brickstorm’ malware

Hackers with links to China reportedly successfully infiltrated a number of unnamed government and tech entities using advanced malware. As reported by , cybersecurity agencies from the US and Canada confirmed the attack, which used a backdoor known as “Brickstorm” to target organizations using the VMware vSphere cloud computing platform.

As detailed in a published by the Canadian Centre for Cyber Security on December 4, PRC state-sponsored hackers maintained “long-term persistent access” to an unnamed victim’s internal network. After compromising the affected platform, the cybercriminals were able to steal credentials, manipulate sensitive files and create “rogue, hidden VMs” (virtual machines), effectively seizing control unnoticed. The attack could have begun as far back as April 2024 and lasted until at least September of this year.

The malware analysis report published by the Canadian Cyber Centre, with assistance from The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) and the National Security Agency (NSA), cites eight different Brickstorm malware samples. It is not clear exactly how many organizations in total were either targeted or successfully penetrated.

In an email to Reuters, a spokesperson for VMware vSphere owner Broadcom said it was aware of the alleged hack, and encouraged its customers to download up-to-date security patches whenever possible. In September, the Google Threat Intelligence Group its own report on Brickstorm, in which it urged organizations to “reevaluate their threat model for appliances and conduct hunt exercises” against specified threat actors.