Data Leak Exposes Chinese State-Sponsored Cyber Arsenal and Target Database

In early November 2025, a massive data breach at Knownsec, a Chinese cybersecurity firm with government ties, was disclosed after the incident on 2 November 2025. The theft exposed more than 12,000 classified documents detailing state-sponsored cyber weapons, internal hacking tools, and a global target list spanning multiple continents.

The leaked materials include technical specifications for cyber weapons and source code for proprietary tools, along with details of government collaborations and extensive lists of foreign surveillance targets.

The breach also unveiling 95GB of immigration records from India, 3TB of call records from LG U Plus in South Korea, and 459GB of road planning data from Taiwan, with the global target list identifying over twenty countries and regions such as Japan, Vietnam, India, Indonesia, Nigeria, and the United Kingdom.

Knownsec’s library reportedly contains Remote Access Trojans for Linux, Windows, macOS, iOS, and Android, including Android malware designed to extract message histories from Chinese chat apps and Telegram, plus hardware-based tools like a malicious power bank. According to the Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning, she was unaware of the Knownsec breach, reiterating China’s opposition to cyberattacks in accordance with the law.