Pakistani Police Systems Hit by Chinese and Indian Espionage

(Alessandro Mascellino – Infosecurity Magazine) Two rival nation-state cyber espionage operations, one linked to China and the other to India, have converged on the same Pakistani police force. According to new analysis published by SentinelLabs, the research arm of SentinelOne, on July 9, suspected China- and India-nexus actors ran intrusion campaigns against several Pakistani law enforcement bodies between February 2024 and April 2026, concentrating on Balochistan Police, the province’s main force. The compromised assets included servers hosting applications for biometric records, criminal case files and tenant registrations tied to national identity data. One China-nexus actor reportedly planted implants in a portal used by officers and citizens. SentinelLabs grouped the command and control (C2) activity observed into four clusters. PlugX, ShadowPad and Cobalt Strike point to China-nexus operators; a Remcos cluster was tied to a suspected India-nexus actor Recorded Future tracks as TAG-179, overlapping with the group others call Bitter. – Pakistani Police Systems Hit by Chinese and Indian Espionage – Infosecurity Magazine