A China-nexus cyber-espionage operation is actively targeting government organizations across Central Asia with a collection of mostly previously unidentified remote access Trojans (RATs) from seven different malware families to establish and maintain long-term access to selected victims.

Researchers from Bitdefender Labs began tracking the activity — which they attribute to an advanced persistent threat (APT) group called SilkParasite — in late 2025 after they detected an infection at a Central Asian government body involved in economic decision-making, according to a report published today. The campaign targets government entities across Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Kazakhstan, using spear-phishing lures tailored to specific ministries and government organizations. More here