Chinese State Hackers Leverage AI Tools in Widespread ConnectWise Cyberattack, Microsoft Reports

10/22/2026

State-aligned attackers said to have carried out ConnectWise hack as part of broader campaign using ARTEX AI-based penetration-testing tool

10/22/2026

A China state-aligned hacking group used an AI-driven penetration testing tool to breach ConnectWise and target hundreds of organisations globally, Microsoft said, warning of persistent cloud access.

10/22/2026

An open-source AI agent called ARTEX was the vehicle for the attacks, which unfolded at lightning speed.

10/22/2026

Campaign targeted hundreds of organizations worldwide; company warns restoring services does not eliminate potential access inside customer systems

10/22/2026

A Chinese government-aligned hacking group used automated tools to carry out the recent supply chain attack on IT management software company ConnectWise and is using the same techniques to try to...

10/22/2026

Microsoft on Wednesday disclosed that a China state-aligned actor dubbed Storm-0940 was behind the recent supply chain compromise of the ConnectWise Cloud Backup application. During the incident,...

10/22/2026

Microsoft points the blame for ConnectWise's breach at a China-aligned hacker, which relied on AI agents to rapidly hack into thousands of its customers.

10/22/2026

Microsoft said the incident demonstrated how threat actors were using AI agents to automate existing attack methods and attempt to compromise multiple organisations at greater speed

10/22/2026

AI agents did the dirty work, with hackers gaining privileged access in some environments in under three hours

10/21/2026

Storm-0940 used the agentic AI penetration testing framework to automate attacks and "reach more than 2,250 tenants at 2,900 sign-in attempts per minute," Microsoft researchers said.