Chinese Hackers Target European Governments in Espionage Campaigns

(Kevin Poireault – Infosecurity Magazine) After a quiet period since 2023, Chinese state-backed group TA416 has reemerged with a vengeance, launching a fresh wave of cyber espionage campaigns against European governments. Proofpoint researchers detected the group’s renewed activity in mid-2025, with multiple malware delivery campaigns targeting EU and NATO diplomatic missions across a range of European countries. TA416 regularly altered its infection chain, including abusing Cloudflare Turnstile challenge pages, abusing OAuth redirects and using C# project files, as well as frequently updating its custom PlugX payload, noted the Proofpoint researchers in an April 1 report. In March 2026, Proofpoint also observed in the weeks following the outbreak of conflict in Iran TA416 expand its targets to include diplomatic and government entities in the Middle East. – Chinese Hackers Target European Governments in Espionage Campaigns – Infosecurity Magazine