Cyber overview
Cyber threat actor

APT31

MSS, Wuhan State Security Bureau · active since 2010

Intellectual property and political intelligence collection. Indicted by DOJ in 2024 for targeting US political dissidents, journalists, and members of IPAC.

Aliases
ZirconiumJudgment PandaViolet Typhoon
Primary targets
Politicians Journalists Think tanks Aerospace Defense

MITRE ATT&CK techniques

3 techniques mapped · click any technique ID to open the MITRE ATT&CK entry, any CVE to view its NVD record, or any citation for source reporting.

TacticTechniqueProcedureTargetsCitation
Initial AccessT1566.002
Spearphishing Link (tracking pixel)
Sent reconnaissance emails with tracking pixels to confirm address, OS, and IP of targets before delivering payloads.
IPAC parliamentarians, journalists, dissidentsDOJ APT31 indictment
Credential AccessT1110
Brute Force / Router compromise
Compromised home and SOHO routers of targets to harvest credentials and intercept traffic.
-DOJ APT31 indictment
CollectionT1114.002
Remote Email Collection
Targeted mailbox exfiltration from Microsoft 365 tenants of think tanks and aerospace firms.
-DOJ APT31 indictment

Curated incidents

  1. 2024-03-25·Government / Civil Society·United States, UK, EU
    DOJ indicts 7 APT31 hackers for targeting IPAC members

    Tracking-pixel spearphish campaign against parliamentarians and journalists.

Live feed mentions
  1. Tue, 22 Jul 2025 20:00:00 GMT · Microsoft Threat Intelligence
    Microsoft attributes on-premises SharePoint exploitation to Chinese state actors