Chinese hackers spied on thousands of companies after breaching IT giant ConnectWise

Microsoft researchers say China state-aligned hackers breached ConnectWise's cloud backup service, stealing application credentials that let them log into customers' Microsoft-hosted environments as authorized users and access emails and other files. The hackers used AI agents, including the open source ARTEX framework, to attempt sign-ins against around 2,250 organizations at nearly 3,000 attempts per minute, a speed Microsoft says leaves defenders little time to detect and respond. ConnectWise said it has paused access to its cloud backup system, is investigating, and as of Thursday was working on restoring the service.