Vault Typhoon: A New Trend in Hacking Tactics

In recent years, hackers, particularly advanced nation-state APTs, have shifted their tactics, favoring a strategy known as 'living off the land'. This new trend in hacking involves using native functionality, tools, and processes of a system to carry out malicious activity, without raising suspicion. Vault Typhoon, a Chinese APT, exemplifies this tactic by leveraging vulnerable network devices and existing features in Windows to infiltrate and compromise high-value targets worldwide. By scanning for exposed devices and exploiting vulnerabilities, Vault Typhoon bypasses social engineering and deploys attacks using legitimate system utilities, making detection more difficult. This tactic poses a significant challenge for organizations, especially those in critical infrastructure, necessitating strong defenses, regular patching, multi-factor authentication, and behavioral analysis to mitigate the risk.