Chengdu: Teahouses, Hotpots, Universities and … Hackers
Chengdu’s leisure lifestyle, education and talent resources have contributed to the city becoming a hacking hub
In the past 20 years, a variety of cyber threat intelligence (CTI) analyses have pointed out that Sichuan Province is a “known hot spot for hacking” and that Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan Province, has “become a hub for Chinese advanced persistent threat (APT) activity.” From late 2023 to 2024, “Chengdu” has appeared in research and analysis reports from Natto Thoughts close to 200 times. The Natto Team’s “obsession” with Chengdu has led us, among the first, to identify publicly that Chinese information security company i-SOON was linked with China-based threat group APT41 and likely worked for the state as a hacker-for-hire. Other than i-SOON, the Natto Team also discussed some Chengdu-based companies, such as Chengdu 404, the company behind APT41, the US Department of Treasury sanctioned
Sichuan Silence Information Technology company, and the rising Chengdu tech-star company NoSugar Tech. Lastly, we gave a full review of the Chengdu-based hacking competition Tianfu Cup 2023. Our …
