Three China-linked advanced persistent threat groups have actively engaged in cyberespionage in Southeast Asia in 2021, the U.S. cybersecurity company Recorded Future's Insikt Group detailed in a Dec. 8 research report. In the nine months preceding the report's publication, Insikt Group found more than 400 unique victim servers communicating with command-and-control (C2) infrastructure it assessed to be linked to Chinese APTs. A suspected Chinese APT that Insikt Group has temporarily labeled Threat Activity Group 16 (TAG-16), reportedly carried out an extensive campaign targeting top government and military offices in Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam. In May 2021, Insikt Group said it observed a cluster of infrastructure using Cobalt Strike and other tools targeting telecommunications , government entities and state-owned enterprises in Laos.