Daily Drop (1208)
12-22-25
Monday, Dec 22, 2025 // (IG): BB // GITHUB // SN R&D
Beijing Plays the Long Game: ASEAN Wariness Meets China's ‘Predictable Power’ Strategy
Bottom Line Up Front (BLUF): China is reframing its global narrative around stability and predictability—positioning itself as the rational alternative to Western volatility. In Southeast Asia, this message is gaining traction among elites even as skepticism lingers over Beijing’s coercive behavior in the South China Sea and its opaque intentions. For security analysts, China’s soft power push is a strategic vector: one that mixes economic statecraft with calibrated cyber and influence operations under the guise of order.
Analyst Comments: This is more than a diplomatic branding exercise. China is weaponizing predictability—a subtler, more brilliant strategy than brute force. While Washington grapples with elections, budget cliffs, and policy reversals, Beijing’s consistency resonates with ASEAN decision-makers who prioritize regime survival and continuity of development. That said, cyber operations and disinformation are part of this “stability” toolkit. Beijing’s emphasis on infrastructure and trade predictability masks long-term efforts to align digital governance, control regional standards, and quietly embed technical dependencies.
READ THE STORY: The Chair
AI Data Center Boom Spurs Political Blowback Over Grid Strain and Rising Power Costs
Bottom Line Up Front (BLUF): Senators Warren, Van Hollen, and Blumenthal have launched a federal inquiry into whether AI-driven data center expansion is inflating household electricity rates. As utilities invest billions to upgrade power grids for hyperscale cloud providers, residential customers may be footing the bill—raising regulatory, political, and national security concerns over infrastructure planning and corporate accountability.
Analyst Comments: Data centers are emerging as critical infrastructure nodes, drawing scrutiny not just from grid operators and environmental groups but now from federal lawmakers. For security professionals, the implications are layered: hostile actors know where the crown jewels are located, and these facilities are increasingly soft targets in both cyber and physical terms. Power disruptions, whether accidental or malicious, could ripple through AI model training, cloud services, and national operations.
READ THE STORY: The Rising Tide
Ukraine-Russia Peace Talks Face Five Hard Stops: No Quick Off-Ramp in Sight
Bottom Line Up Front (BLUF): Despite increased global chatter about potential negotiations, real progress toward ending the Russia-Ukraine war faces five entrenched obstacles: territory, trust, leadership goals, domestic politics, and outside interference. Neither side appears ready to compromise on core demands, making a negotiated peace unlikely in the near term—despite war fatigue on all fronts.
Analyst Comments: Western pressure for talks may increase, especially with elections looming in the U.S. and EU, but the hard truth is neither Russia nor Ukraine can accept a settlement that doesn't feel like a win. For cybersecurity and defense planners, that means continued Russian hybrid operations—including disinformation, espionage, and destructive cyberattacks—will remain a strategic tool, especially as battlefield momentum stalls. Expect continued GRU and FSB activity targeting Ukrainian allies, critical infrastructure, and elections.
READ THE STORY: WSJ
Fiji’s Nuclear-Powered Relief Ship Sinks Under Scrutiny
Bottom Line Up Front (BLUF): A plan announced by Fijian PM Sitiveni Rabuka to deploy a nuclear-powered disaster relief vessel—Ocean of Peace—has quietly collapsed. A regional technical review found the project lacked viable technology, regulatory frameworks, insurance coverage, and risk mitigation—underscoring that neither the Pacific’s infrastructure nor political climate is ready for nuclear propulsion.
Analyst Comments: Trying to deploy untested micro-modular reactors (MMRs) aboard a disaster-response ship in a region still haunted by nuclear trauma was always going to hit resistance. While the initiative might’ve looked like green energy meets soft power, in practice it raised serious questions: no commercial MMRs exist for maritime use; no Pacific Island nation has a nuclear regulatory body; and scars from Cold War-era testing still shape public sentiment. Even if well-intentioned, the plan risked becoming a front for foreign tech piloting under the guise of climate resilience. That’s not lost on regional experts—or on adversaries looking to exploit infrastructure uncertainty.
READ THE STORY: Michael Field’s South Pacific Tides
U.S. Blocks Chinese Firms from Building Near Data Centers Citing National Security Risk
Bottom Line Up Front (BLUF): The U.S. government has introduced new restrictions to prevent Chinese companies from constructing facilities near U.S. data centers, citing concerns about espionage and infrastructure compromise. This move reflects heightened concern over proximity-based surveillance, signaling a shift from software-focused to physical-layer security enforcement in critical digital infrastructure.
Analyst Comments: The U.S. is drawing a clear line between foreign influence and physical proximity to critical infrastructure, including data centers. The concern is apparent: physical proximity enables signals intelligence (SIGINT), covert network tapping, and easier execution of side-channel or supply-chain attacks. For security teams, this marks a broader shift in threat model—where zoning, property ownership, and urban development patterns are now part of your attack surface.
READ THE STORY: AI Little Bee
Iran’s “Prince of Persia” APT Resurfaces With Telegram-Based Malware Targeting Global Critical Infrastructure
Bottom Line Up Front (BLUF): Iranian APT group “Prince of Persia” (aka Infy) has returned after a three-year hiatus with two new malware strains—Tonnerre v50 and Foudre v34—leveraging Telegram as a covert command-and-control (C2) channel. These campaigns are targeting critical infrastructure sectors globally, indicating a strategic shift in both TTPs and operational scope.
Analyst Comments: Prince of Persia has ditched outdated FTP C2 infrastructure and resurfaced with more evasive techniques—including Telegram bot C2, DGA-based infrastructure, and refined loader delivery via Excel droppers. The use of encrypted, mainstream platforms like Telegram for exfiltration isn’t just about evasion—it’s about blending in. These actors are adapting, and fast. What stands out here is the scale: multiple parallel campaigns, overlapping infrastructure, and a significant footprint for a group once believed dormant. Infy’s pivot suggests Iranian threat actors are prioritizing persistence and lateral movement within operational environments that support national-interest objectives—including those beyond Iran’s borders.
READ THE STORY: GBhackers
AI-Native Telco? More Like AI-First Cloud: Why Telcos Can’t Lead the AI Revolution
Bottom Line Up Front (BLUF): Sebastian Barros argues that the “AI-native telco” is a contradiction in terms. No matter how much AI telcos bolt onto legacy infrastructure, they remain constrained by traditional control, data flows, and economic models. The real AI-first telecom platform won’t emerge from telcos—it will be built by hyperscale cloud providers, data companies, or entirely new entrants who design around AI from the start.
Analyst Comments: Their architecture—centralized, hardware-heavy, and regulation-bound—is fundamentally at odds with the agility AI requires. True AI-first systems start from the premise that intelligence, not connectivity, is the core service. That means control shifts from network engineers to ML ops, data becomes the product, and economics are driven by compute—not spectrum. Telcos are racing to wrap AI around customer service, predictive maintenance, and traffic optimization. But those are Band-Aids. The next generation of “telecom” might look more like AWS managing edge inference nodes than Verizon laying fiber.
READ THE STORY: Sebastian Barros Newsletter
CRINK Outlook for 2026: China Leads in Strategic Depth, Russia in Operational Risk
Bottom Line Up Front (BLUF): As 2026 approaches, China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea (CRINK) remain the top nation-state cyber threats. China is the most persistent long-term threat, with a focus on data harvesting and intellectual property theft. Russia presents the highest short-term risk to critical infrastructure, while Iran and North Korea continue asymmetric campaigns—using AI-powered social engineering and crypto theft, respectively. Expect CRINK operations to intensify across AI supply chains, CNI sectors, and global IT services in the coming year.
Analyst Comments: China is digging in deep, using low-noise intrusion, long dwell times, and quantum-ready data harvesting to position itself for strategic dominance. Russia, meanwhile, is pursuing high-impact operational strikes—especially in energy, defense, and Ukraine-adjacent sectors. What’s shifting in 2026 is scale and subtlety: AI-assisted attacks, stealthy supply chain compromise, and “quiet persistence” are replacing smash-and-grab tactics. For defenders, detection needs to shift from anomaly-based to intent-based. Attribution helps, but operational containment is now the front line.
READ THE STORY: ITPro
North Korea’s APT37 Unleashes ‘Artemis’ Malware via HWP Documents
Bottom Line Up Front (BLUF): South Korean researchers have uncovered a new campaign by North Korea’s APT37 (aka Reaper), using malicious Hangul Word Processor (HWP) documents to deliver malware via embedded OLE code. Dubbed “Artemis,” the campaign targets South Korean users in government, military, and industrial sectors, signaling continued refinement in DPRK’s espionage-focused capabilities.
Analyst Comments: “Artemis” is classic DPRK tradecraft: using domestic file formats, low-friction user triggers, and OLE exploits to compromise targets with minimal noise. The use of HWP files is no accident—it reflects tailored operational targeting, where familiarity with Korean systems provides both social-engineering cover and a technical advantage.
READ THE STORY: The Korea Times
New Apache Log4j Flaw Exposes Sensitive Logs to MITM Attacks
Bottom Line Up Front (BLUF): Apache has patched a new Log4j Core vulnerability (CVE-2025-68161) that allows attackers to intercept log data via TLS connections that fail hostname verification. The flaw affects the Socket Appender component in versions 2.0-beta9 through 2.25.2. It can be exploited to conduct man-in-the-middle (MITM) attacks, potentially leaking sensitive debug data, credentials, or internal network structure.
Analyst Comments: While CVE-2025-68161 doesn’t reach the critical severity of Log4Shell (2021), it hits where defenders live: in the logs. If an attacker can insert themselves in the traffic path, they can silently siphon high-value operational data. What makes this dangerous is the silent failure of a security control, even when explicitly enabled. Hostname verification was turned on via settings like verifyHostName, but Log4j ignored it—leaving organizations with a false sense of security. That’s a recipe for trusted TLS channels being quietly hijacked.
READ THE STORY: GBhackers
Base64 Prompt Injection Exposes LLM Weaknesses: Encoding Tricks Bypass Filters, Trigger Unintended Execution
Bottom Line Up Front (BLUF): Researchers have demonstrated that large language models (LLMs) such as Qwen, LLaMA, and Gemma can be manipulated to automatically decode Base64-encoded instructions, bypassing conventional content filters and executing attacker-supplied logic. The implicit decoding behavior—triggered without explicit prompts—can be exploited to inject commands or jailbreak system safeguards through natural-language requests, raising new concerns about prompt injection and LLM trust boundaries.
Analyst Comments: By treating Base64 strings as semantically meaningful input, models are essentially parsing and executing untrusted code without user authorization or contextual validation. It’s not an exploit in the traditional CVE sense, but a design flaw rooted in the statistical nature of LLM training. Security controls that rely solely on plaintext filtering or rule-based WAFs won't detect these attacks. Expect to see these techniques integrated into red team tooling and adversarial AI jailbreaks. Defenders must assume LLMs will attempt decoding if payloads are sufficiently "clean" and surrounded by benign instructions.
READ THE STORY: DarkFi5
Amazon Unmasks DPRK IT Worker Using Keystroke Latency Analysis
Bottom Line Up Front (BLUF): Amazon security teams identified a North Korean imposter posing as a U.S.-based remote employee by analyzing subtle keystroke latency. Despite the worker using a laptop physically located in Arizona, telemetry revealed the machine was being remotely operated—exposing a broader DPRK infiltration campaign targeting IT roles at U.S. tech firms.
Analyst Comments: Keystroke latency, generally dismissed as noise, became a signal—flagging remote desktop manipulation and revealing a DPRK asset embedded inside Amazon’s workforce. The operation leaned on “laptop farms” in the U.S. to give North Korean operatives a domestic footprint and trusted IP addresses. The strategic intent behind these campaigns is twofold: generating revenue for Pyongyang through legitimate IT contracting work and securing long-term access for espionage or sabotage. The fact that Amazon has already blocked over 1,800 DPRK infiltration attempts since April 2024, with a 27% quarterly increase, signals a sustained, well-funded, well-coordinated, and growing campaign.
READ THE STORY: GBhackers
Israel Consolidates Military Control in Gaza Despite Ceasefire, Satellite Analysis Shows
Bottom Line Up Front (BLUF): New satellite imagery and field analysis by Forensic Architecture reveal that Israel has constructed 13 new military outposts and expanded 48 more across Gaza since the October 10 ceasefire. These moves—alongside new road construction and widespread demolition of Palestinian infrastructure—indicate a sustained effort to entrench a long-term Israeli military presence within Gaza, particularly east of the so-called "yellow line" established in Trump’s ceasefire map.
Analyst Comments: Israel is using standard military doctrine: establish physical “facts on the ground” before political negotiations catch up. The construction of hardened outposts, the rerouting of strategic corridors like Magen Oz, and land seizure beyond agreed boundaries all point toward the partitioning of Gaza as a de facto policy. The addition of “Alternative Safe Communities” for Palestinians east of the yellow line—while prohibiting construction to the west—mirrors past Israeli settlement strategies in the West Bank. It raises serious legal and strategic questions: if Israeli control extends to 53% (or more) of Gaza under military and infrastructural permanence, is a future withdrawal even plausible?
READ THE STORY: DSN
GAO Audit Exposes Deep Structural Flaws in U.S. National Cybersecurity Strategy
Bottom Line Up Front (BLUF): A comprehensive GAO audit highlights that the U.S. National Cybersecurity Strategy (NCS) suffers from critical implementation failures—ranging from missing outcome-based metrics and uncoordinated leadership to chronic underinvestment in OT/IoT security and supply chain visibility. Despite its global cyber dominance on paper, the U.S. continues to struggle with fragmented governance, “checklist compliance” culture, and bureaucratic inertia, leaving key infrastructure and defense systems exposed.
Analyst Comments: The strategy itself may be bold, but execution is crippled by a lack of measurable KPIs, internal turf wars (notably between ONCD and CISA), and an overreliance on voluntary compliance frameworks for critical infrastructure protection. The absence of cost modeling compounds the risk: agencies are spending without knowing what “success” looks like or whether they’re making progress on national risk reduction. Key operational failures like CISA’s OT talent gap, broken intelligence-sharing pipelines, and widespread use of fake parts in DOD supply chains turn the spotlight from APTs and ransomware to self-inflicted structural vulnerabilities. The takeaway? Strategy is only as strong as its execution—and right now, the U.S. cyber strategy is missing legs.
READ THE STORY: IT’s A-Tu
Items of interest
Researchers Demonstrate Spoofing of Aviation Systems with Off-the-Shelf Tools
Bottom Line Up Front (BLUF): A team of researchers from Georgia successfully simulated fake aircraft using spoofed ADS-B signals transmitted over 1090 MHz. Using open-source tools and hardware such as HackRF, they demonstrated how attackers can inject phantom aircraft into air traffic control systems—without physical access or advanced capabilities. The implications for aviation security are significant, especially given the lack of authentication in core aviation protocols.
Analyst Comments: By abusing the ADS-B (Automatic Dependent Surveillance–Broadcast) system, attackers can fabricate aircraft out of thin air and potentially trigger responses from pilots, air traffic control, or automated systems. The aviation industry’s reliance on unauthenticated radio transmissions such as ADS-B, VHF, and GNSS has always been a risk; now it’s actively exploitable with a $300 SDR and a YouTube tutorial. While mitigation is complex due to legacy constraints, the need for authenticated, encrypted aircraft telemetry is urgent. GNSS spoofing and radio deception are no longer the exclusive province of nation-states.
READ THE STORY: Eye on Cyber
Detecting Aircraft Spoofing With Fly-Catcher (Video)
FROM THE MEDIA: Hackers can pose a threat to aircraft by creating fake aircraft using software-defined radios (SDRs) to spoof ADS-B, a type of tracking signal used by pilots and ATC to locate aircraft.
ADS-B: The Future of Aircraft Surveillance (Video)
FROM THE MEDIA: ADS-B (Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast) is the backbone of modern air traffic surveillance. Aircraft broadcast their GPS-derived position, altitude, and velocity, which ground stations and other aircraft receive for situational awareness.
The selected stories cover a broad array of cyber threats and are intended to aid readers in framing key publicly discussed threats and overall situational awareness. InfoDom Securities does not endorse any third-party claims made in its original material or related links on its sites; the opinions expressed by third parties are theirs alone. For further questions, please contact InfoDom Securities at dominanceinformation@gmail.com.The selected stories cover a broad array of cyber threats and are intended to aid readers in framing key publicly discussed threats and overall situational awareness. InfoDom Securities does not endorse any third-party claims made in its original material or related links on its sites; the opinions expressed by third parties are theirs alone. For further questions, please contact InfoDom Securities at dominanceinformation@gmail.com.
Excellent roundup, especially the point about China weaponizing predictabilty as soft power. That framing cuts through a lot of noise because it's not just diplomatic theater, it's a calculated response to Western policy volatility that ASEAN elites can actually exploit for continuity. What stood out to me though was the DPRK keystroke latency case at Amazon, that's such a subtle tell but also shows how sophisticated these laptop farm operations have become. I ran into similar patterns analyzng remote desktop forensics last year, and the latency delta between local input and RDP relay is measureable but easy to miss unless you're actively looking for it.