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Breaking: New GopherWhisper APT Abuses Outlook, Slack, Discord for Espionage

New state-backed APT GopherWhisper discovered using Go-based toolkit and legitimate platforms (Outlook, Slack, Discord) to target government entities.

Breaking News — April 23, 2026

A previously undocumented state-backed threat actor named GopherWhisper has been discovered using a Go-based custom toolkit and legitimate services like Microsoft 365 Outlook, Slack, and Discord in attacks against government entities.

Key Findings

  • Threat Actor: GopherWhisper (previously undocumented)
  • Toolkit: Go-based custom malware
  • Communication channels: Microsoft 365 Outlook, Slack, Discord
  • Targets: Government entities
  • Attribution: State-backed APT

Tactics

By abusing legitimate communication platforms, GopherWhisper blends in with normal traffic, making detection extremely difficult. The use of everyday business tools for command-and-control is a growing trend among sophisticated threat actors.

The Go-based toolkit suggests a well-resourced operation with custom development capabilities.

Source: BleepingComputer