CLAWS Cyber Index I Volume I I Issue 16
This edition of the CLAWS Cyber Index highlights the deepening intersection of geopolitics, national security, and technological competition. Key developments reveal a focus on digital sovereignty, with India promoting domestic applications to reduce reliance on U.S. technologyand China implementing export controls on rare earth technologies to protect its national interests. The securitization of technology supply chains is a critical flashpoint, underscored by Taiwan’s rejection of a U.S. proposal to split semiconductor production, a move aimed at preserving its strategic “silicon shield”.
State-sponsored cyber espionage and military modernization continue to accelerate. Reports detail a China-nexus actor deploying a novel tool named “Nezha” against targets in East Asia, the Confucius group evolving its tactics to establish long-term persistence in attacks on Pakistan, and a threat actor known as Cavalry Werewolf targeting Russian government agencies. Concurrently, the global arms race is advancing, with the U.S. Army testing new data-driven artillery systems, China developing its J-50 tailless stealth fighter, and NATO adopting Australian-made laser weapons to counter drone threats.
The threat landscape is also marked by the increasing sophistication of cybercriminal tools and the exploitation of critical vulnerabilities. A China-aligned group has been observed using Large Language Models (LLMs) to automate and scale spear-phishing campaigns. Meanwhile, unpatched vulnerabilities in enterprise software, such as VMware and GoAnywhere MFT, are being actively exploited for privilege escalation and to deploy ransomware. These events underscore a complex global environment where cyber operations, technological dominance, and strategic industrial policies are increasingly intertwined.
