[Erlangen]

> Notably, the first scan of this URL on the VirusTotal platform occurred in late September, by a user from Taiwan.

Could this be the attacker? The scan happened before the hack was first exposed on the forum.

[gruez]

You would be a dumbass to do that, because virustotal allows security researchers to see submitted samples/urls. The last thing you want to do is to draw attention to your C&C server.

[wyldberry]

It's not uncommon to use VT and other sandbox tools as a proxy indicator for if your attacks have tripped defenders and tooling.