China reportedly conducting critical infrastructure attack drills

Intrusions conducted by China against neighboring countries' critical infrastructure entities have been rehearsed using the Expedition Cloud system developed by CyberPeace, reports The Record, a news site by cybersecurity firm Recorded Future.

Templates copying targeted networks are integrated into Expedition Cloud, which offers cyberattack training drills for a reconnaissance team tasked to conduct digital environment mapping and an attack group that would leverage obtained intelligence for the planned compromise, according to an analysis of a cache of leaked technical documents first reported by NetAskari. Attacker teams have extensively logged network traffic, system activity, and operator decisions in Expedition Cloud but additional details on their specific mission goals and custom hacking tools were lacking.

"It's an incredible application of network engineering to offense. Very few countries maybe fewer than seven have this capability built into their operational concepts. China is clearly among the best," said SentinelOne's China expert Dakota Cary.