Google Had an Undercover Analyst Inside Hacking Group TeamPCP as It Breached Thousands of Companies
Mandiant’s analyst joined TeamPCP’s 12-member inner circle almost from day one, monitoring its CanisterWorm chat channel. The group’s supply-chain campaign later breached more than 1,000 companies, targeting tools including Trivy, LiteLLM, TanStack, and Mistral AI.
Google’s threat intelligence subsidiary Mandiant had an undercover analyst embedded inside the inner circle of TeamPCP — a hacker group responsible for the largest software supply-chain hacking spree on record — almost from the moment the group became active, Google revealed in September 2026.
The disclosure came at the LABScon security research conference, where Google Threat Intelligence Group researcher Austin Larsen presented details of the company’s investigation and infiltration of TeamPCP. The undercover analyst, whose identity Larsen declined to reveal, was one of roughly 12 members granted access to the group’s core chat channel, which TeamPCP called CanisterWorm. “Almost day one, Mandiant was watching everything behind the scenes,” Larsen told WIRED.
TeamPCP, which first appeared online in late 2025, carried out a cascading series of supply-chain attacks by repeatedly compromising open-source software to conceal malware, then using that access to steal developer credentials and infiltrate additional widely used tools. Targets included the open-source security scanner Trivy, the AI API tool LiteLLM, web application security firm Checkmarx, the web app library TanStack, and enterprise AI platform Mistral AI. The group also deployed a self-spreading worm called Mini Shai-Hulud — named after the sandworms in the novel Dune — to automate and scale its attacks. Ultimately, TeamPCP breached more than a thousand companies, including GitHub, data contracting firm Mercor, and employee devices at OpenAI and the European Commission.
In late August 2026, Australian police, working with FBI assistance, arrested two Australians in their early twenties — Ruben Ian Thomson and Louis Michael Gaebler — and charged them with hacking crimes. Australian Federal Police described them as “principal participants” in TeamPCP.
Google said its inside access allowed the company to monitor the hacking campaign in real time, warn breach targets, and help disrupt exploitation attempts. Larsen also said Google tracked operational security mistakes allegedly made by one of the two suspects and passed identifying details to law enforcement. Additional intelligence came from ShinyHunters, another cybercriminal group that had partnered with TeamPCP before turning on it.
The operation suggests that threat intelligence firms may be conducting long-term undercover infiltrations of active criminal hacking groups — a tactic that, if confirmed as a broader practice, could significantly alter how cybercriminal investigations unfold.