State-sponsored Chinese hackers have been targeting Southeast Asia since 2013

Researchers have revealed a previously undocumented threat actor of Chinese origin that has run at least six different cyber espionage campaigns in the Southeast Asian region since 2013. The findings — disclosed by Palo Alto Networks’ threat intelligence team Unit 42 — linked the attacks to a group (or groups) it called PKPLUG, named after its tactic of delivering PlugX malware inside ZIP files, which are identified with the signature “PK.” The ambiguity in it