Cyber Security News

Hacking Editorial Brief — August 29, 2026

U.S. Officials Walk Back Claims on Chinese Government Agency Hacks

The Department of Justice and FBI revised statements claiming multiple U.S. government agencies were successfully breached by Chinese state-sponsored hackers, now clarifying that HHS, the National Institutes of Health, and other federal entities were targeted but not confirmed as compromised. The correction follows Wednesday's seizure of infrastructure used by QTFY, a China-linked hacking group employed by Nanjing Xinjiuwei Network Technology Co. that sells offensive cyber services. The QScan and QTRouter platforms disrupted in the operation were used to target critical infrastructure sectors including financial services, though officials have not disclosed the success rate of intrusion attempts or confirmed data exfiltration from any agency systems.

Nevada Ransomware Attack Takes Down 60+ State Agencies; Berlin Faces Extortion After Data Theft

Nevada confirmed a ransomware attack on August 24 forced statewide systems offline, affecting more than 60 agencies including the DMV, Department of Health and Human Services, and Department of Public Safety. Systems remain down as incident response continues. Separately, Berlin's mayor disclosed the city is facing extortion demands after hackers compromised municipal networks and exfiltrated data earlier this month. The Berlin government has refused payment, though the scope of stolen information and operational impact have not been detailed publicly.

Over 8,300 Gitea Instances Remain Unpatched Against Actively Exploited RCE Flaw

More than 8,300 internet-exposed Gitea code repository instances remain vulnerable to a critical remote code execution flaw currently under active exploitation. The unpatched systems represent immediate compromise risk as attackers target the self-hosted Git service used by development teams for source code management.

Sources: Medical Daily · US News · BBC · Bleeping Computer