Ting's Cyber Gossip: China's Hacking Rampage—SAP, Cisco, and More!

This is your Digital Dragon Watch: Weekly China Cyber Alert podcast.

Hey there, cyber enthusiasts! Ting here, coming to you with this week's Digital Dragon Watch. Grab your coffee because China's cyber operations have been absolutely wild these past few days!

Breaking news first: Chinese state-backed hackers have been exploiting a critical vulnerability in SAP NetWeaver systems since April, targeting critical infrastructure globally. The vulnerability, CVE-2025-31324, enables unauthenticated remote code execution—basically a hacker's dream ticket into secure systems.

EclecticIQ researchers uncovered this campaign just yesterday when they found an exposed directory on attacker infrastructure that contained detailed logs of compromised systems. The target list is alarming: natural gas distribution networks and water utilities in the UK, medical device manufacturing plants and oil companies in the US, and even government ministries in Saudi Arabia handling financial regulation.

The attacks have been linked to several Chinese threat groups including UNC5221, UNC5174, and CL-STA-0048. What's particularly concerning is the scale—581 organizations breached and counting! Researcher Arda Büyükkaya from EclecticIQ noted that the attackers used Nuclei, a reconnaissance tool, to scan the internet for vulnerable SAP instances.

But that's not all that's happening in Chinese cyber activity. Salt Typhoon (also known as "RedMike") has been on a telecom hacking spree. Between December 2024 and January 2025, they targeted over 1,000 unpatched Cisco edge devices worldwide. They've already compromised five telecom providers, including two US-based companies, by exploiting Cisco vulnerabilities CVE-2023-20198 and CVE-2023-20273.

Salt Typhoon also set their sights on American universities including UCLA, Loyola Marymount, Utah Tech, and Cal State.

The US Justice Department isn't sitting idle. In early March, they charged 12 Chinese contract hackers and law enforcement officers in connection with global cyber operations.

Meanwhile, Beijing has been strengthening its own cyber regulations. A second draft of amendments to China's Cybersecurity Law was released on April 1st, introducing stricter penalties and clearer enforcement mechanisms.

For organizations using SAP systems, the urgent recommendation is to patch immediately against CVE-2025-31324. For those with Cisco infrastructure, ensure all devices are updated to address the vulnerabilities exploited by Salt Typhoon.

Remember folks, in today's cyber landscape, patching isn't just good practice—it's survival. This is Ting signing off until next week. Stay vigilant, stay patched, and maybe think twice before connecting that legacy system to the internet!

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