Yesterday at the Black Hat security conferences, CyCraft researchers presented details of a previously unknown hacking campaign that compromised Taiwanese chip firms. CyCraft is a Taiwanese cybersecurity firm that has been investigating the campaign, which allegedly compromised at least seven firms over a two year period. The operation has been named Skeleton Key due to the attackers’ use of a skeleton key injector technique. This technique aims to steal intellectual property including source code, software development kits, and chip designs.

Taiwan has been in conflict with China for much of its existence and has repeatedly been targeted by Chinese APT groups and state-sponsored hackers. However, Operation Skeleton Key was conducted by a single group of Chinese hackers who were able to steal sensitive intellectual property, pillaging Taiwan’s entire semiconductor industry. The campaign was operated by the notorious Chinese threat actor group Winnti.

Read More: Chinese Hackers Have Pillaged Taiwan’s Semiconductor Industry