Silk Typhoon’s Corporate Shell: SentinelLabs Traces MSS Offensive Ecosystem Through Patent Trails and Cyber Firm Affiliations

July 30, 2025

SentinelLabs has drawn back the curtain on the Chinese state-sponsored threat actor Silk Typhoon (aka Hafnium), highlighting how corporate fronts, particularly in Shanghai, serve as technical and legal vessels for China's Ministry of State Security (MSS). Using patent databases, court records, and employment histories, SentinelLabs maps a tiered system of MSS-aligned cyber contractors producing offensive tooling far beyond previously attributed capabilities.