Developers and cloud providers were among those alerted after Google gained access to a server holding credentials stolen by TeamPCP, a hacking group that breached more than 1,000 companies and tainted widely used open-source tools.
Google’s threat intelligence division placed an undercover Mandiant analyst inside the group’s inner circle, Google Threat Intelligence Group researcher Austin Larsen said at the LABScon security conference on Thursday. The analyst joined TeamPCP’s inner “CanisterWorm” chat in March 2026, after months spent building a relationship with one operator in the wider cybercrime scene.
The chat contained roughly 12 members. Google said the analyst was admitted as a trusted associate and watched the group’s cascading supply-chain attacks from nearly day one.
TeamPCP, also known as UNC6780, surfaced online in late 2025. It carried out what Google described as the worst-ever software supply-chain hacking spree, targeting the software components and credentials used by developers and organisations.
The group poisoned open-source projects and infrastructure including Trivy, LiteLLM, Checkmarx infrastructure, TanStack and Mistral AI. Its “Mini Shai-Hulud” worm spread through connected systems and was linked to breaches at GitHub, Mercor, OpenAI employee devices and the European Commission.
Google said TeamPCP also conducted prompt injection attacks against AI coding assistants. The full extent of damage beyond the organisations publicly named by Google remains unknown, as does the complete list of compromised packages and repositories.
During the investigation, Google accessed the group’s stolen-credential server. The Australian Federal Police put the collection at more than half a million credentials. Google then sent hundreds of notifications to providers including AWS and Microsoft, asking them to revoke stolen usernames, passwords and access tokens.
The operation was also aided by intelligence from ShinyHunters, a former TeamPCP partner that later turned on the group, according to Google. The company said access to the group’s discussions and its credential server gave it visibility of attacks while the operation was active and allowed warnings to be sent before further use of the stolen access details.
Australian police arrested and charged Ruben Ian Thomson and Louis Michael Gaebler last month, whom authorities allege were TeamPCP leaders. The arrests were made with FBI assistance.
Authorities have not said how many other agencies were involved, whether other suspected members remain under investigation, or whether TeamPCP operated under another name before it appeared online in late 2025. Google has also not said whether it identified any other undercover operatives within the group.
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