China-linked hackers targeted Mongolian government using Slack, Discord for covert communications A previously undocumented China-aligned threat actor targeted a Mongolian government entity and used popular communication platforms such as Discord, Slack and Microsoft 365 Outlook to manage its operations and steal data, researchers have found. The group, which researchers at cybersecurity firm ESET named GopherWhisper, has been active since at least November 2023 and was discovered in January 2025 after investigators found a previously unknown backdoor on the network of a Mongolian government institution. The malware, dubbed LaxGopher, was deployed on roughly a dozen systems belonging to the organization, the Slovak cybersecurity firm said in a report on Thursday. Researchers believe the…