Google's Undercover Researcher Infiltrated TeamPCP, the Group Behind History's Biggest Supply Chain Hacking Spree

Hacker group TeamPCP breached more than a thousand companies by tainting hundreds of open-source programs with malware, hijacking developer accounts and releasing a Dune-themed self-spreading worm. Before two alleged leaders were arrested in Australia last month, Google's Threat Intelligence Group had an undercover researcher inside the group, Google analyst Austin Larsen says in a LABScon talk. Google monitored the operation, warned victims, helped disrupt attacks, and passed identifying details — traced through the suspects' own operational security mistakes — to law enforcement, with help from ShinyHunters, a rival gang that turned on TeamPCP.