Chinese Hackers Ghost at U.S. Diplomatic Christmas Party with Fake Briefings
KEY POINTS
- ā¢Between late December and mid-January, Mustang Panda hackers sent phishing emails posing as U.S. diplomacy briefings worldwide.
- ā¢Dream Security's CEO said many were infected, but the exact number and identity of victims remain unknown.
- ā¢An AI agent detected the campaign first, marking a technological milestone in espionage identification.
Between late December and mid-January, China-based cyber ninjas from Mustang Panda threw a phishing holiday party that nobody wanted an invite to. They sent out emails disguised as official U.S. diplomatic briefings ā because when you want to ruin a diplomat's day, just slap on some gov-speak and call it āpolicy.ā No software glitches required: just opening the file was like shaking hands with a cyber-spy Santa delivering persistent malware. Dream Securityās CEO Shalev Hulio admitted they caught āa lot of people,ā but who exactly? Thatās the cybersecurity equivalent of Santa checking whoās naughty without leaving a list. Even AI detectives got in on this spy drama, allegedly catching the campaign firstābecause when your strongest cybersecurity ally is artificially intelligent, you've reached peak 21st-century paranoia.
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Chinese hackers out here phishing diplomats with Christmas cheer so lethal it doesnāt even need a software bug, just bad email etiquette and relentless sneaky persistence.
Mustang Panda's holiday email looked like classified Santa spam and still fooled more people than your inbox filter ever will.
Opening a mail from Mustang Panda's phishing campaign is like unwrapping a gift from a mafia donāsurprise! There's spyware inside.
Source: Axios | Published: 2/3/2026 | Author: Sam Sabin
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