TL;DR

• [Geopolitics] China-linked activity against Taiwan critical infrastructure is reported as sustained and scaling, consistent with reconnaissance, access maintenance, and prepositioning objectives.
• [Vulnerabilities] January patch activity plus newly added Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEV) increases near-term exploitation likelihood, especially for internet-exposed and patch-lagged systems.
• [Cybercrime/Cloud] Extortion-driven breach pressure continues (e.g., telecom investigation amid leak claims) while SaaS misconfiguration exposure (e.g., Salesforce Aura/Experience Cloud) remains a high-impact risk without traditional “patch” signals.

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Current Stories

TL;DR

• [Geopolitics] Taiwan warns China-linked CI targeting is scaling; expect spillover pressure on allies.

• [Vulnerabilities] KEV adds + January Patch Tuesday create a near-term “exploit menu” for patch-lagged orgs.

• [Cybercrime] Brightspeed confirms it’s investigating; extortion crew claims theft and threatens a data dump.

• [Policy/Defense] CISA retiring legacy Emergency Directives further centralizes urgent remediation around KEV/BOD 22-01.

References

• (2026-01-04) Analysis on China’s Cyber Threats to Taiwan’s Critical Infrastructure in 2025

• (2026-01-13) Microsoft Patch Tuesday for January 2026 — Snort rules and prominent vulnerabilities

• (2026-01-12) CISA Adds One Known Exploited Vulnerability to Catalog

• (2026-01-07) CISA Adds Two Known Exploited Vulnerabilities to Catalog

• (2026-01-06) Brightspeed investigates breach as crims post stolen data for sale

• (2026-01-08) CISA Retires Ten Emergency Directives, Marking an Era in Federal Cybersecurity

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Emerging Stories

TL;DR

• [Cloud/SaaS Exposure] Fresh tooling: AuraInspector operationalizes detection of Salesforce Aura/Experience Cloud exposure paths. Why now: defenders are standardizing checks for misconfig-driven leaks.

• [Threat Actors] Fresh reporting on ongoing ops: UAC-0190 charity lures via messaging apps drop PluggyApe. Why now: emphasizes non-email delivery and CI-adjacent targeting in Ukraine.

• [Vulnerabilities/Exploitation] Ongoing exploitation: React2Shell remains actively abused across React/Next.js estates. Why now: broad actor interest suggests continued scanning and repeatable compromises.

References

• (2026-01-12) AuraInspector: Auditing Salesforce Aura for Data Exposure

• (2026-01-13) Kremlin-linked hackers pose as charities to spy on Ukraine’s military

• (2025-12-12) Multiple Threat Actors Exploit React2Shell (CVE-2025-55182)

Forecasts, Detection Ideas and Suggested Pivots