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🎯 Introduction
In the hidden corridors of cyberspace, a new model of espionage has emerged—one that mirrors the organized cooperation of modern business. Trend™ Research has uncovered a rising trend among China-aligned APT (Advanced Persistent Threat) groups, where cybercriminals no longer act as isolated entities but as coordinated networks sharing access, tools, and targets. The recent partnership between Earth Estries and Earth Naga marks the dawn of what experts are calling the “Premier Pass-as-a-Service” model, a sophisticated evolution in cyber warfare that blurs the lines of attribution and complicates defense strategies worldwide.
This investigative report unpacks how two major cyber-espionage groups have turned collaboration into a weapon, transforming the global threat landscape and challenging every notion of digital security we thought we understood.
🧩 The New Era of Collaborative Cyber Espionage
In recent years, Trend™ Research analysts have noticed a significant transformation in how state-aligned cyber espionage campaigns operate. Once thought to be competing or independently functioning groups, actors such as Earth Estries and Earth Naga have now shown signs of deep, structured collaboration.
The concept of “Premier Pass-as-a-Service” (PPaaS) represents an emerging paradigm: a system where one group, acting as an access broker, shares or sells entry points to another group for exploitation. In this model, Earth Estries operates as the upstream access provider—gaining footholds in government, retail, and telecom systems across Asia-Pacific—and then granting this access to Earth Naga, known for sophisticated espionage targeting Taiwan, NATO countries, and other high-value entities.
The implications are severe. By dividing responsibilities and coordinating operations, these groups are making detection exponentially harder. Traditional cybersecurity methods that rely on behavioral patterns or singular TTPs (Tactics, Techniques, and Procedures) are rendered ineffective, as multiple entities now overlap within the same digital environments.
Trend™ Research’s four-tier collaboration framework defines these new attack patterns:
Type A: Shared infection vectors with loose coordination.
Type B: Supply chain attacks showing strict collaboration.
Type C: Deployment of another group’s payload (as in Earth Estries–Earth Naga case).
Type D: Operational box provisioning, where one group builds and manages infrastructure for another.
These models illustrate how cyber espionage has matured into a cooperative ecosystem—much like organized crime syndicates working across borders.
🕵️ Inside the Earth Estries and Earth Naga Alliance
The collaboration between Earth Estries and Earth Naga didn’t happen overnight. Investigations revealed a timeline of linked intrusions across APAC and Southeast Asia:
November 2024: A major retail company in APAC was breached by Earth Estries, who later handed over access to Earth Naga.
March 2025: A government agency in Southeast Asia was compromised through similar shared-access activity.
April–July 2025: Telecommunications providers in APAC and NATO nations were simultaneously targeted using overlapping malware families.
The toolkit shared between them includes CrowDoor, ShadowPad, and Cobalt Strike, along with custom loaders like Draculoader. ShadowPad, a malware previously tied to China-aligned actors, was notably deployed by Earth Estries on behalf of Earth Naga—a rare occurrence that demonstrates deliberate collaboration rather than accidental overlap.
Moreover, Trend Vision One telemetry identified that both groups used overlapping C&C (Command and Control) infrastructures, further supporting the existence of a coordinated ecosystem rather than independent incidents.
This shared-access phenomenon mirrors corporate outsourcing: Earth Estries establishes the initial breach, while Earth Naga steps in to perform sustained espionage and data extraction. Together, they execute what Trend calls the Premier Pass model—essentially a fast-track ticket to espionage success.
⚙️ The Premier Pass-as-a-Service Model Explained
Unlike typical Initial Access Brokers (IABs), who merely sell network entry points, Premier Pass-as-a-Service involves direct, trusted sharing between allied APTs. These are not black-market transactions but organized, permission-based collaborations within a controlled network of China-aligned groups.
The PPaaS model offers several advantages:
Speed and efficiency: Eliminates redundant reconnaissance phases.
Operational stealth: Shared infrastructure makes attribution extremely difficult.
Resource optimization: Specialized teams focus on access, exploitation, or data theft.
In many ways, this mirrors corporate synergy—each group focusing on its “core competency” within a broader espionage economy. Trend’s analysts suggest that the Premier Pass model may explain why some known APTs appear to have gone dormant: they are not gone, but operating behind the curtain through shared infrastructure.
As Joseph C. Chen, Vickie Su, and Lenart Bermejo from Trend™ Research note, this is not just technical collaboration—it’s strategic integration, akin to a merger between digital espionage corporations.
🧠 Attribution Challenges in the New Landscape
Traditional cybersecurity frameworks like the Diamond Model, which focuses on adversary, infrastructure, capability, and victim, are struggling to adapt to this reality. When multiple APT groups share infrastructure, malware, or command sessions, even the most sophisticated attribution efforts face uncertainty.
For example, when the same backdoor (like ShadowPad) is used by two different threat actors, it’s nearly impossible to determine whether the overlap is due to tool-sharing, subcontracting, or direct coordination. Trend proposes an enhanced analytic approach, focusing on the roles each group plays:
Developer: Creates tools and exploits.
Provider/Broker: Distributes access and infrastructure.
Downstream User: Executes attacks or data theft using provided assets.
In this framework, Earth Estries clearly acts as the Provider, while Earth Naga functions as the Downstream User, forming a textbook case of the Premier Pass-as-a-Service collaboration model.
🧩 Security Implications and Global Risks
The implications of this collaboration ripple far beyond China’s cyber sphere. Telecommunications, government, and defense sectors across APAC, NATO countries, and Latin America now face coordinated infiltration attempts.
The complexity of such campaigns means that organizations can no longer rely solely on reactive defenses. Security experts emphasize the need for multi-layered monitoring, real-time threat intelligence, and strict access validation—especially concerning edge devices and remote administration tools.
Trend Vision One™, with its AI-driven detection and threat intelligence system, plays a critical role in identifying these multi-group intrusions, correlating signals across layers to prevent undetected cross-group campaigns.
The future of cyber warfare may not lie in single-actor attacks but in alliances of threat groups operating under shared operational contracts, each fulfilling a unique purpose in a massive, covert network of espionage.
💬 What Undercode Say:
From an analytical standpoint, the Premier Pass-as-a-Service model represents one of the most significant paradigm shifts in the cyber threat ecosystem over the past decade. What we are witnessing is not just a tactical evolution but a strategic industrialization of cyber espionage.
Earth Estries and Earth Naga have essentially created a digital supply chain. Estries acts as the “manufacturer” of access—breaching networks, establishing persistence, and preparing infrastructures—while Naga becomes the “consumer,” extracting intelligence and executing espionage operations.
This approach introduces organizational logic into cyber warfare, where efficiency, scalability, and stealth take precedence over brute-force hacking. It echoes the globalization of traditional industries: each actor specializes, collaborates, and conceals within a larger operational web.
From a defensive perspective, this makes attribution and countermeasures increasingly complex. Instead of defending against one known adversary, cybersecurity teams are now combating networked ecosystems of interlinked threat actors. The blurring of digital borders has transformed cyber defense into a war of intelligence rather than tools.
Undercode’s analysis suggests that these operations also reveal geopolitical undertones. The coordination among China-aligned groups could signify state-endorsed convergence, where information sharing and access trading are part of a broader strategic doctrine. This allows China’s cyber apparatus to scale global surveillance efficiently, targeting critical infrastructure while maintaining plausible deniability.
Ultimately, PPaaS is not just a new attack method—it’s a business model for espionage, one that thrives on stealth, mutual trust among threat groups, and shared operational objectives. As this model matures, defenders must adopt an intelligence-first mindset—correlating behavioral data, infrastructure overlaps, and geopolitical patterns to uncover hidden relationships among attackers.
🔍 Fact Checker Results
✅ Verified evidence of Earth Estries–Earth Naga collaboration through shared infrastructure.
✅ “Premier Pass-as-a-Service” term introduced by Trend™ Research in 2025.
❌ No confirmed proof that all China-aligned APTs are directly state-controlled.
📊 Prediction
The Premier Pass-as-a-Service model will likely expand beyond China-aligned groups in the coming years 🌐. Western and Russian APTs could adopt similar frameworks, leading to multi-state hybrid operations.
By 2026, cybersecurity defenses may shift toward AI-driven behavioral mapping and shared threat intelligence networks, aiming to dismantle these covert alliances before they escalate. 🚨
🕵️📝✔️Let’s dive deep and fact‑check.
References:
Reported By: www.trendmicro.com
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