Proofpoint recently identified a SugarGh0st RAT campaign targeting organizations in the United States involved in artificial intelligence efforts, including those in academia, private industry, and government service.
Proofpoint tracks the cluster responsible for this activity as UNK_SweetSpecter. SugarGh0st RAT is a remote access trojan, and is a customized variant of Gh0stRAT, an older commodity trojan typically used by Chinese-speaking threat actors. SugarGh0st RAT has been historically used to target users in Central and East Asia, as first reported by Cisco Talos in November 2023.
Read more…
Source: ProofPoint
Related:
- Inside Shadow-Earth-053: A China-Aligned Cyberespionage Campaign Against Government and Defense Sectors in Asia
April 30, 2026
Through ongoing analysis of ShadowPad implants targeting South and Southeast Asia, TrendAI Research has uncovered a series of new related campaigns that are tracked under a temporary intrusion set (a provisional cluster of related activity pending formal attribution) designated SHADOW-EARTH-053, which we assess to be aligned with China’s broader strategic interests. Trend Micro telemetry indicates that ...
- When Wi-Fi Encryption Fails: Protecting Your Enterprise from AirSnitch Attacks
April 22, 2026
Enterprises have long trusted Wi-Fi encryption and client isolation to secure their wireless infrastructure. However, Palo Alto conducted research presented at the NDSS Symposium 2026 that reveals that these safeguards can be breached by a novel set of attack techniques that they call AirSnitch. These techniques exploit subtle security issues in protocol-infrastructure interactions to undermine the ...
- UK: Military reviews Army’s use of Chinese technology to make weapons
April 18, 2026
The Defence Secretary has ordered an investigation after The Telegraph revealed that the British Army was using Chinese 3D printers to build weapons. Last year, it was revealed that British troops were taking the technology with them into the field and using it to make “suicide drones” for attack missions, despite national security concerns. Army officers said ...
- Russian hacking group targets home and small office routers to spy on users
April 8, 2026
British security officials found that a group linked to the Russian military is spying on users of compromised Small Office/Home Office (SOHO) routers in a broad cyber espionage campaign. A Microsoft blog goes into the technical details of these attacks. The group, which researchers will refer to as APT28, but is also known under names like ...
- Hack-for-hire group caught targeting Android devices and iCloud backups
April 8, 2026
Security researchers say they have identified a hack-for-hire group targeting journalists, activists, and government officials across the Middle East and North Africa. The hackers used phishing attacks to access targets’ iCloud backups and messaging accounts on Signal, and deployed Android spyware capable of taking over the targets’ devices. This hacking campaign highlights a growing trend of ...
- New “BrowserGate” report claims LinkedIn secretly scans user browsers for installed extensions and collects device data
April 6, 2026
A new report is alleging LinkedIn uses hidden JavaScript to scan its visitors’ browsers for installed extensions, looks for those that compete with its own sales tools, and then twists its users’ arms until they stop using those and pick LinkedIn’s products, instead. However the social network says this is a smear campaign run by a ...

