Recorded Future's Insikt Group reports that, while Chinese influence operations have tended to present a benign, well-intentioned face to the larger world, Beijing's elbows are a great deal sharper when it comes to dealing with Hong Kong and Taiwan. Taiwan's relatively successful attempts to prevent Mainland disinformation from having any significant effect on the country's elections can be expected to lead China's "content farmers" to look for more effective tactics. These are likely to include an increased emphasis on cultivating local influencers who could lend amplification and credibility to Beijing's line.
A cyberespionage campaign Kaspersky calls "PhantomLance" has been able to infiltrate Google Play, and it appears to be the work of Vietnam's OceanLotus group. PhantomLance, whose masters appear interested in collecting both domestic and foreign intelligence, is relatively quiet (it tailors itself to its targets the better to avoid overloading them with noisy and unneeded functionality). It's also relatively selective in its choice of targets: since 2016 roughly three-hundred attempts have been observed, with most of the targets found in India, Vietnam, Bangladesh and Indonesia. Algeria, Iran, South Africa, Nepal, Myanmar, and Malaysia also figured on the list.
CyberNews has taken a look at the malware for sale in dark web souks and concludes that it's surprisingly affordable and accessible. They looked at ten such souks and evaluated them for malware availability, cost of the tools being sold, and availability of customer support. They found fairly capable tools selling for as little as $50 (complete with updates and troubleshooting).
