China Hacks US Again: SharePoint Breaches, Lotus Malware, and Cyber Crossfire - Your Sizzling Infosec Update!

This is your China Hack Report: Daily US Tech Defense podcast.

I’m Ting, your daily dose of cyber and caffeine, and you’re tuned in to the China Hack Report: Daily US Tech Defense, coming in hot on August 1st, 2025. If you thought this week could wind down quietly, not so fast—it's been a high-voltage 24 hours for China-linked cyber activities, and here’s what every infosec wonk in the States needs to know.

The headline grabbing all the threat feeds: Microsoft’s SharePoint file-sharing software is again ground zero. Microsoft announced that Chinese state-backed groups are actively exploiting fresh SharePoint vulnerabilities to breach systems. About 400 government agencies, corporations and other organizations were compromised, with the majority of victims in the US—telecom, defense, and healthcare sectors all confirmed hit. Some US government departments are back in incident response mode, chasing digital breadcrumbs through compromised business and personal data.

And just when you think you’ve patched everything, boom—another day, another malware strain. Researchers at Palo Alto Networks are dissecting what they believe to be a custom malware toolkit tied to the same China nexus, rapidly dubbed “Crimson Lotus.” This particular nasty bit creates persistence on SharePoint servers, siphons admin credentials, and exfiltrates sensitive documents—some of which belonged to a Fortune 100 telecom firm.

CISA wasted no time, issuing two urgent advisories. First, a mandatory emergency patch rollout for Microsoft SharePoint, with an explicit warning to prioritize all on-premises deployments. Second, CISA is recommending robust multifactor authentication and continuous monitoring for exfiltration patterns, particularly for endpoints tied to critical infrastructure. Any lag in applying these updates is an open invite for trouble—so sayeth the U.S. Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency, and honestly, who am I to argue?

While CISA defends the digital fort, the political cyber crossfire is getting spicy too. China’s cyberspace regulator summoned US tech company reps to Beijing after Microsoft’s disclosures went public. Meanwhile, in a classic cyber tit-for-tat, the Cyber Security Association of China is now accusing the US of exploiting Microsoft bugs to snoop on Chinese military data. Both Washington and Beijing, of course, are denying everything while quietly rotating passwords and bulk buying firewalls.

If you work IT at a government contractor, or just have SharePoint on your resume, do yourself a favor—double-check your patch status, tighten those IAM policies, watch those network logs, and maybe consider a side career in yoga relaxation.

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