China-Aligned Hackers Deploy AI Penetration Tool ARTEX in Massive ConnectWise Supply Chain Attack

Microsoft disclosed that a China state-aligned threat actor known as Storm-0940 conducted a large-scale supply chain attack using ARTEX, an agentic AI penetration testing framework, targeting over 2,250 Microsoft 365 tenants through a compromised ConnectWise Cloud Backup application. The campaign represents one of the first documented cases of nation-state actors deploying AI agents at scale for cyberattacks, demonstrating the accelerating pace of automated intrusions.