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Marc Hofer

@marchofer.bsky.social
440 followers 65 following 315 posts

Journalist ,former East-Africa and Middle East and a few years China. Ex SkyNews, Ex ITV. A few wars, a little bit of “cybersec and China” and other things.

PostsRepliesMedia
Reposted by Marc Hofer
Emily Feng @emilyzfeng.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
1/ New from me: Chinese diplomats scrambled up to 90 min before the Xi/Trump visit to the National Archives to stop a Taiwan-related treaty from being shown. ..."an indication of pushback from within the U.S. government against President Trump's warm reception of Xi.." www.npr.org/2026/09/29/n...
npr.org
Potential Taiwan tension sparked 'last minute' change in Trump-Xi National Archives visit
The sudden change was precipitated because of Chinese displeasure over one document that the U.S. had planned to show.
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Reposted by Marc Hofer
China Law Translate / Jeremy Daum @chinalawtranslate.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
Top search terms guiding traffic to Chinalawtranslate.com Because the internet is horrible.
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Marc Hofer @marchofer.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Just as Xi and Trump are having their little ‘harmony’ celebration in Washington, NetAskari is looking more into ZRON: A Chinese espionage-as-a-service operator that runs data acquisition and big-data analysis systems for Chinese state security orgs: netaskari.substack.com/p/back-to-zr...
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Reposted by Marc Hofer
James Fallows @jfallows.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
What do I expect out of this "summit"? Zero. Why? Because it's in the Chinese interest just to endure this, as they humor an obviously incapacitated Trump and collapsing MAGA Dynasty. They'll take tribute from all the tech barons tonight. Make some token 'deal." Then back home to real business.
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Marc Hofer @marchofer.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
Anthropic claimed in their latest report that they had disrupted the development of an online mass surveillance system from China. NetAskari had been monitoring the very project already and has the receipts. The full playbook here on the NetAskari Substack: netaskari.substack.com/p/anthropic-...
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Marc Hofer @marchofer.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
How good is China's own cyber defense when it comes to government owned infrastructure you might ask yourself at times !? Well, thanks to a hack of an extensive cyber defense drill for the province of Qinghai, we know more. 1/4
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Marc Hofer @marchofer.bsky.social · 16/08/2026
Do Chinese security institutions spy on ZOOM calls of international users ? Well, NetAskari has an anecdote that raises questions: netaskari.substack.com/p/does-the-c...
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Reposted by Marc Hofer
Christiaan Triebert @trbrtc.bsky.social · 12/08/2026
Ecuadorean fishermen say drones attacked them in the Pacific — English-speaking men in US-flag uniforms, no insignia. 8 missing, several injured. Flight data shows a patrol plane shifting course to stay pointed at all 3 boats. It's on no Pentagon roll, registered to a UPS store mailbox in Virginia.
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Marc Hofer @marchofer.bsky.social · 29/07/2026
Teaming up with Hunt.io NetAskari got a glimpse into the rapidly expanding landscape of Chinese rapid-malware-construction-kits for malicious Android Apps. Often one stop-shop setups with minimal skill requirements: various-yard-748589--new-blog-flying-bul8h8gss.framer.app/blog/flying-...
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Marc Hofer @marchofer.bsky.social · 27/07/2026
A dataset we received via Hunt.io shows that Claude ( old models ) is still tricked into playing "CTF" against actual live targets today in an attempt to hack into systems ( though it seems mainly old model version ) : open.substack.com/pub/netaskar...
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Marc Hofer @marchofer.bsky.social · 20/07/2026
Brief access to an unsecured dashboard that showed the live orchestration of a framework to set up ‘water hole attacks’ via Coruna/Darksword exploit-chains, demonstrates how this powerful spy tool is now cleary part of the mass-cyber-crime ecosystem. 1/3
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Marc Hofer @marchofer.bsky.social · 19/07/2026
NetAskari talks to Justin Hysler on China’s plan for a national DNS resolver and the country’s cyber sovereignty: open.substack.com/pub/netaskar...
open.substack.com
Episode 8: DNS4CN and China's internet sovereignty.
We are revisiting DNS4CN one more time, a topic we covered a while ago based on documents from the famous Geedge leak.
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Marc Hofer @marchofer.bsky.social · 15/07/2026
“Talking Tom” a hardware version of a popular video game and interactive app character, harbors a Chinese LLM that has strict censorship instructions on topics like Taiwan and Xi Jinping’s rule. We did get an insight into its training regiment. Read the report: netaskari.substack.com/p/tom-cat-or...
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Marc Hofer @marchofer.bsky.social · 10/07/2026
Surfilter, a Chinese company building hardware firewall systems mainly for the government, had it's firmware binary leaked. A selectionof all the VPNs the system is able to fingerprint ( among many others ) 1/2 : AnyViewer Clash ProtonVPN Tunnelbear TurboVPN V2Ray (and V2RayN) Windscribe …
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Marc Hofer @marchofer.bsky.social · 09/07/2026
Meet ‘ZRON’, a full intelligence collection-analysis tool chain, offered by a Chinese company. A recent hack, offered on a CN dark web forum, delivers a fascinating insight into a toolbox of which we have seen echo's before. One-stop-shop, full service and AI enabled.: substack.com/home/post/p-...
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Marc Hofer @marchofer.bsky.social · 29/05/2026
Read PART2 of the investigation by NetAskari into the “Dynamic Control Platform for Overseas Personnel”. A glimpse behind the curtain of the Chinese surveillance state. open.substack.com/pub/netaskar...
open.substack.com
Sharp Eyes: Mass surveillance of foreigners in China - Part 2
In this follow up story we will now take a deeper dive into other findings with regards to the 'Dynamic Control Platform for Overseas Personnel', that we discussed in part 1.
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Marc Hofer @marchofer.bsky.social · 26/05/2026
Read NetAskari’s fascinating investigation into a mass surveillance system in China, tailored to foreigners and expats for the Ministry of Public Security ( Part 1 and Part 2 are out now ): substack.com/@netaskari/n...
substack.com
Sharp Eyes: Mass surveillance of foreigners in China - Part 1
A publicly exposed web front reveals new details on a tracking system for foreigners and delivers many insight into the capabilities of security organs to track individuals in real time.
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Marc Hofer @marchofer.bsky.social · 05/05/2026
Has China’s National Super Computer Center suffered one of the biggest data hacks of history? netaskari.substack.com/p/chinas-mas...
netaskari.substack.com
China's massive data leak of military secrets ?
The National Super Computer Center in Tianjin seemed to have experienced a massive data leak of whooping 10 PetaByte of internal data, inclusive classified data. Samples have leaked, we took a look.
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Marc Hofer @marchofer.bsky.social · 04/05/2026
全息档案系统: A holistic data storage and analysis system for individuals. We are trying to track China's ability of using big-data to surveil and observe citizens remotely via abandoned dashboards. netaskari.substack.com/p/tracking-c...
netaskari.substack.com
Tracking China's mass surveillance capabilities via abandoned online dashboards
You can find many abandoned mock-up dashboard on the China-Net. While often just displaying mundane functionalities, they can reveal interesting developments in the security ecosystem of the country.
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Marc Hofer @marchofer.bsky.social · 28/01/2026
We talked with Dr. Valentin Weber about his research on secure messenger services inside the PLA, their flaws and limitation and how a system obsessed with surveillance, even compromises on security to keep tabs on what their soldiers talk about: open.substack.com/pub/netaskar...
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Marc Hofer @marchofer.bsky.social · 19/01/2026
Chinese pen-testers know about the Chinese eco system as much as they know about western tools and techniques. While western researchers often never step inside the Chinese world of red-teams: tinyurl.com/48z9etwk
tinyurl.com
What's in the box !?
NetAskari got access to a little "toolbox" of a Chinese red-team/pen-tester. Let's explore.
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Marc Hofer @marchofer.bsky.social · 12/01/2026
See how Chinese red-team / pen-testers see China's e-government infrastructure and witness how they assess security flaws in the govt run service infrastructure ( has diagrams and pictures ) : tinyurl.com/ynp4ahzk
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Marc Hofer @marchofer.bsky.social · 06/01/2026
We got our hand on a Chinese DLP program the government and national security agencies use to monitor state employees computers for leakage and usage of confidential documents. Meet 保密管理系统. 1/9
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Marc Hofer @marchofer.bsky.social · 04/01/2026
Why do so little internal documents leak from China, compared to its sizable digital administrative infrastructure ? NetAskari got their hands on an internal document monitoring and control software for government workstations: open.substack.com/pub/netaskar...
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Marc Hofer @marchofer.bsky.social · 23/12/2025
As the year is coming to an end, here are our picks of the five best stories on netaskari.online . If you have some time over the holidays, please check them out: open.substack.com/pub/netaskar...
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Marc Hofer @marchofer.bsky.social · 15/12/2025
An example of an HikVision powered neighborhood surveillance and access-control system, that you can find all across China's cities. In the past often stand-alone, they are increasingly getting integrated into the nation wide "Sharp eyes" ( 雪亮 ) project.
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Marc Hofer @marchofer.bsky.social · 08/12/2025
Read our primer on how the big-data analysis system operated by the Chinese police can track people across country, via having almost real time access to their means of travel, bank account activities, phone calls and online activity. netaskari.substack.com/p/smart-poli...
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Marc Hofer @marchofer.bsky.social · 01/12/2025
Welcome to PART 2 of NetAskari’s analysis of “Expedition Cloud”, a Cyber Range operated by the Ministry of Public Security of China to improve their offensive cyber capabilities : open.substack.com/pub/netaskar...
open.substack.com
Critical strike: China's hacking training grounds (PART 2)
A deep dive into the technical elements of the "Expedition Cloud" Cyber Range designed for the Chinese Ministry of Public Security.
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Marc Hofer @marchofer.bsky.social · 26/11/2025
China’s hacking training grounds, gunning or foreign nations’ critical infrastructure: tinyurl.com/y67z79ve
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Marc Hofer @marchofer.bsky.social · 25/11/2025
Internal documents from a Chinese cyber security company reveal how the Ministry of Public Security is commissioning “cyber ranges” to explore attack methods against adversaries digital critical infrastructure: open.substack.com/pub/netaskar...
open.substack.com
Critical strike: China's hacking training grounds (PART 1)
Exclusive internal design documents reveal details of China's digital training grounds, set up to attack critical infrastructure of its "major adversaries".
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Marc Hofer @marchofer.bsky.social · 11/11/2025
China created its digital surveillance state with the eager help of US’s BigTech, Dake Kang reports: open.substack.com/pub/netaskar...
open.substack.com
Episode 4: State of surveillance - Made in America
An AP investigation reveals deep links of US big tech companies and the Chinese digital surveillance machine.
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Marc Hofer @marchofer.bsky.social · 06/11/2025
More comprehensive take on the KnownSec data leak: open.substack.com/pub/netaskar...
open.substack.com
KnownSec breach: What we know so far.
After the initial buzz around the data leak from Chinese cybersecurity firm KnownSec, a few more details have since emerged. Here is our take.
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Marc Hofer @marchofer.bsky.social · 06/11/2025
Some first thoughts on the KnownSec databreach : open.substack.com/pub/netaskar...
open.substack.com
Breaking: KnownSec - Databreach
One of China's most prolific developers of digital forensic tools for the Chinese security services and provider of "cyber weapons" might have undergone a major data leak.
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Marc Hofer @marchofer.bsky.social · 02/11/2025
A new comcept for a locked down DNS for China, will strengthen the country’s digital censorship: open.substack.com/pub/netaskar...
open.substack.com
DNS4CN: A Truly Locked-Down DNS for China
China still relies heavily on the global DNS resolution system, creating a lot of headaches for the censors and puts extra strain on the Great Firewall of China. A new system design changes that.
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Marc Hofer @marchofer.bsky.social · 25/10/2025
We interviewed Benjamin Mixon-Baca on his reaearch on Free VPNs, who is behind them and their links to Chinese cyber security companies and ex-PLA members. substack.com/@netaskari/n...
substack.com
Free VPNs: Security flaws, hidden owners and potential links to the PLA.
Free VPNs are mushrooming in App-Stores. But they come often with a whole rat tail of problems and hidden "features".
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Marc Hofer @marchofer.bsky.social · 17/10/2025
A patent shows how China’s security services keep tabs on citizens mobile devices combining WiFi-probes and big-data collusion : open.substack.com/pub/netaskar...
open.substack.com
Big Data = Big Surveillance
China’s ability to conduct digital surveillance on their population is not particularly new, but connecting those tools to big-data raises their potency.
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Marc Hofer @marchofer.bsky.social · 04/10/2025
Episode 2 of NetAskari’s podcast just dropped : The Locknet - substack.com/home/post/p-...
substack.com
Episode 2: The Locknet
How China controls the internet and why it matters: Join Jessica Batke and Laura Edelson talking to us about their recent report.
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Reposted by Marc Hofer
Scott Horton @robertscotthorton.bsky.social · 04/10/2025
“The source told CBS News that [Kash Patel and Dan Bongino] asked for "large, beefy" agents to conduct an arrest of Comey "in full kit," including Kevlar vests and exterior wear emblazoned with the FBI logo.” The leadership of the FBI is now in the hands of infantile psychopaths.
cbsnews.com
The FBI is weighing an arrest and perp walk for Comey — and suspended an agent for refusing to help, sources say
The FBI is considering carrying out a "showy" arrest and perp walk of the agency's now-indicted ex-Director James Comey, sources tell CBS News.
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Marc Hofer @marchofer.bsky.social · 02/10/2025
Xinjiang 912: The evolution of the Great Firewall forged in one of the world’s most surveilled and controlled regions. open.substack.com/pub/netaskar...
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Marc Hofer @marchofer.bsky.social · 30/09/2025
We took a stroll among the less sexy “study” documents of MESA Lab but still found some interesting little nuggets on the future of China’s cyber strategy and developments : open.substack.com/pub/netaskar...
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Reposted by Marc Hofer
The Washington Post @washingtonpost.com · 26/09/2025
Federal agencies are racing to contain a new wave of sophisticated hacking by suspected Chinese attackers that took advantage of previously undiscovered flaws in widely used security software from networking company Cisco.
washingtonpost.com
U.S. government scrambles to stop new hacking campaign blamed on China
U.S. cybersecurity officials ordered civilian federal agencies to check for vulnerable Cisco equipment being exploited by attackers targeting the government.
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Marc Hofer @marchofer.bsky.social · 22/09/2025
Selling China's Great Firewall to the world: a series of unprecedented data and document leaks lift the curtain on China's global surveillance and censorship business ( built with the help of some western big tech players too ). open.substack.com/pub/netaskar...
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Marc Hofer @marchofer.bsky.social · 12/09/2025
We did a little bit of an analysis of a leaked project mindmap that according to us, reveals some internals of a Chinese network range, operated by the Ministry of Public Security.
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Marc Hofer @marchofer.bsky.social · 11/09/2025
Not sure how reliable the numbers are as we have very scarce data on China, where the private-public cyber security sector is booming too.
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Reposted by Marc Hofer
Unofficial BBCNews (World) Bot @bbcnews-world-rss.bsky.social · 11/09/2025
'Dark DNA' may explain dancing spiders' extraordinary diversity
bbc.com
'Dark DNA' may explain dancing spiders' extraordinary diversity
There are many more species of peacock spider than other animals, scientists think they may know why.
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Reposted by Marc Hofer
The Associated Press @apnews.com · 10/09/2025
Many in Silicon Valley call China a threat to freedom, but an AP investigation finds U.S. companies designed technology for China used to spy on and detain hundreds of thousands of people. The tech companies deny wrongdoing.
bit.ly
US tech companies enabled the surveillance and detention of hundreds of thousands in China
U.S. technology firms such as IBM, Dell and Cisco largely designed and built China’s surveillance state, an AP investigation finds. The tech companies deny wrongdoing.
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Marc Hofer @marchofer.bsky.social · 09/09/2025
A massive data set reveals the Chinese company that sales powerful and sweeping online surveillance systems to regimes around the globe: www.wired.com/story/geedge...
wired.com
Massive Leak Shows How a Chinese Company Is Exporting the Great Firewall to the World
Geedge Networks, a company with ties to the founder of China’s mass censorship infrastructure, is selling its censorship and surveillance systems to at least four other countries in Asia and Africa.
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Marc Hofer @marchofer.bsky.social · 06/09/2025
Check out the report here: tinyurl.com/mvxstdee
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Marc Hofer @marchofer.bsky.social · 05/09/2025
China’s global data raiders : PART 2 of our analysis of “Hawk Eye”. substack.com/@netaskari/n...
substack.com
NetAskari (@netaskari)
Chinas global data raiders: Read PART 2 of our analysis of “Hawk Eye” and see what offensive capabilities it hides in its guts.
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Reposted by Marc Hofer
Unofficial BBCNews (World) Bot @bbcnews-world-rss.bsky.social · 03/09/2025
Trump says 11 killed in US strike on drug-carrying vessel from Venezuela
bbc.com
Trump says 11 killed in US strike on drug-carrying vessel from Venezuela
The Trump administration has signalled a willingness to use military force against drug cartels.
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