FBI remotely deletes Chinese malware from thousands of U.S. computers in a court-approved cyber move

Global security action targets ‘Mustang Panda’ hackers identified as state-linked data theft group

By Bill Gertz – The Washington Times – Tuesday, January 14, 2025

The FBI and French authorities conducted an international operation to remotely delete Chinese malware used by Beijing-linked hackers to steal data from thousands of U.S., European, and Asian computer networks, the Justice Department disclosed on Tuesday.

The hacking group dubbed “Mustang Panda” and “Swill Typhoon” by security authorities has been paid by the Chinese government since at least 2014 for the use of special malware called PlugX, the department said in a statement.

Court documents unsealed in federal court in Philadelphia charged that the hackers infiltrated Windows-based computers of both government and private sector networks in the U.S. Shipping companies in Europe and several European governments were also hacked, along with Chinese dissident groups and governments throughout the Indo-Pacific region, an FBI affidavit stated.

French law enforcement was able to penetrate the Chinese command-and-control network that was running the hacking operation, the document said. The French then were able to issue a “self-delete” command that eliminated the software on an infected network.

The FBI then applied the same technique on U.S. systems.

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Germany’s New Morgenthau Plan

“The Timing Is Absolutely Terrible”: German Government Collapses Just One Week After French Implosion

Europe is disintegrating as legacy political regimes are collapsing over across the world.

Just one week after Marine Le Pen precipitated the collapse of the French government, on Monday, Chancellor Olaf Scholz lost a confidence vote in the German Parliament on Monday, a defeat that effectively ended the increasingly unpopular government he has led since 2021 and ushered in elections early next year.

German lawmakers voted to dissolve the existing government by a vote of 394 to 207, with 116 abstaining.

The collapse of the government just nine months before elections had been scheduled was an extraordinary moment for Germany, once Europe’s powerhouse but now a laughingstock at the mercy of both China and Russia. This will be only the fourth snap election in the 75 years since the modern state was founded, and it reflected a new era of more fractious and unstable politics in a country long known for durable coalitions built on plodding consensus.

The confidence vote, in the same month that the French government fell, deepens a crisis of leadership in Europe at a time of mounting economic and security challenges. The war in Ukraine has reached a pivotal moment, with Russia set to make decisive territorial gains and perhaps even push on toward Kiev, while president-elect Donald J. Trump is set to take office in the United States. And now, Europe’s largest and second largest economies are in the hands of a caretaker governments, as the continent is sent reeling in a tailspin of chaos and revulsion to the status quo.

Scholz had little choice but to take the unusual step of calling for the confidence vote after his three-party coalition splintered in November, ending months of bitter internal squabbling and leaving him without a parliamentary majority to pass laws or a budget. And now, the political uncertainty could last for months. The elections are expected to be held on Feb. 23, but even if, as expected, his party does not finish first, Scholz would remain in place as a caretaker chancellor until weeks after that. He would step down only after a new coalition forms, which will probably not happen until April or May according to the NYT..

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We should be thankful that the future is in Trump’s hands — and not Harris’