Chinese State Hackers Exploit ARTEX AI Framework to Breach Thousands of Microsoft 365 Accounts in Hours

Chinese state-linked hackers have weaponized an open-source penetration testing AI framework called ARTEX to automate large-scale cyberattacks, breaching over 2,250 Microsoft 365 tenants in hours following a ConnectWise vulnerability disclosure. The campaign, attributed by Microsoft to Storm-0940, demonstrates how AI agents can compress months of conventional attack timelines into minutes, raising urgent questions about the intersection of AI autonomy and cybersecurity.