China's MirrorFace Attacks European Diplomats; Black Basta Ties to Russia Exposed with 9,300 Infected Sites

A series of cyber espionage operations linked to China and Russia have recently come to light. The China-linked group MirrorFace has executed a stealthy attack on a European diplomatic group, utilizing the revived ANEL backdoor, AsyncRAT, and HiddenFace malware, along with stealth access via VS Code Remote Tunnels. Meanwhile, the Black Basta ransomware gang has been implicated in ties to Russian authorities, with leaked chat logs revealing collaboration between the group's leader and Russian officials. Additionally, a new malware campaign named ClearFake has infected over 9,300 sites, using fake reCAPTCHA and Cloudflare checks to deploy Lumma and Vidar Stealer malware, exposing over 200,000 users. In a related development, hackers are hijacking compromised Signal accounts to spread Dark Crystal RAT malware, specifically targeting Ukraine’s military and defense sector through malicious messages.