The Treasury Division imposed sanctions on a Beijing-based cybersecurity firm on Friday, blaming it for serving to Chinese language hackers infiltrate U.S. communications programs and conduct surveillance throughout 4 continents.
In an announcement, the division mentioned the corporate, Integrity Expertise Group, had supported a Chinese language state-sponsored hacking group generally known as Flax Hurricane in a marketing campaign to interrupt into international networks between the summer season of 2022 and 2023, saying it discovered the group had “routinely despatched and acquired info from Integrity Tech infrastructure.”
The motion got here after the Treasury Division revealed in a letter to lawmakers this week {that a} Chinese language intelligence company had breached its programs in what gave the impression to be an espionage operation, having access to the workstations of presidency workers and unclassified paperwork.
A spokesman for the division didn’t specify whether or not Flax Hurricane had been implicated within the assault on the Treasury Division’s programs, or whether or not the sanctions have been merely half of a bigger operation to disrupt China’s cybercapabilities.
The sanctions additionally comply with the far more damaging revelation final yr {that a} group linked to Chinese language intelligence companies and generally known as Salt Hurricane had hacked U.S. telecommunications networks, concentrating on the phone conversations and textual content messages of an array of high political figures, together with President-elect Donald J. Trump.
Like Salt Hurricane, Flax Hurricane is amongst a handful of teams that Microsoft has publicly recognized as being linked to Chinese language intelligence and liable for a spread of state-sponsored cyberattacks. The group has been lively since 2021 and seems centered on targets in Taiwan and the USA, in keeping with the Congressional Analysis Service.
“The Treasury Division won’t hesitate to carry malicious cyberactors and their enablers accountable for his or her actions,” Bradley T. Smith, an performing beneath secretary of the Treasury, mentioned in a press release. “The US will use all accessible instruments to disrupt these threats as we proceed working collaboratively to harden private and non-private sector cyberdefenses.”
In September, the F.B.I. mentioned it had taken down a community of 200,000 client units in the USA and overseas that had been compromised with malware and weaponized by Flax Hurricane.
The sanctions introduced on Friday typically prohibit monetary establishments and people from transacting with Integrity Expertise Group, and freeze any of its property in the USA.
It was not instantly clear what the breach of the Treasury Division could have achieved, however the company represents a gorgeous goal for state-sponsored hackers due to its Workplace of International Property Management, which is liable for imposing sanctions and figuring out which people signify a risk to nationwide safety.
