The Treasury Department on Friday sanctioned a Beijing-based cybersecurity company, accusing it of helping Chinese hackers infiltrate US communications systems and conduct surveillance on four continents.
In a statement, the Department said that Integrity Technology Group supported a Chinese state-sponsored hacking group known as Flax Typhoon in a campaign to infiltrate foreign networks in the summer of 2022 and 2023, and that the group “regularly sends and receives information from Integrity Tech.” infrastructure”.
The action came after the Treasury Department it is stated in the letter sent to the MPs reported this week that a Chinese intelligence agency breached its systems in what appeared to be an espionage operation, gaining access to government employees' workplaces and unclassified documents.
A department spokesman did not specify whether Flax Typhoon was involved in the attack on Treasury Department systems or whether the sanctions were simply part of a broader operation to disrupt China's cyber capabilities.
Sanctions follow more harmful exposure Last year, a group known as “Salt Typhoon” linked to Chinese intelligence agencies hacked US telecommunications networks and targeted their phone calls and text messages. a number of high political figuresincluding President-elect Donald J. Trump.
as Salt TyphoonFlax Typhoon is one of several groups that Microsoft owns determined by the public China is responsible for a number of intelligence-related and state-sponsored cyberattacks. According to the Congressional Research Service, the group has been active since 2021 and is focused on targets in Taiwan and the United States.
“The Department of the Treasury will not hesitate to hold malicious cyber actors and their enablers accountable for their actions,” said Acting Deputy Treasury Secretary Bradley T. Smith. “The United States will use all available tools to disrupt these threats as we continue to work together to strengthen public and private sector cyber defenses.”
In September, the FBI he said it took down a network of 200,000 consumer devices in the US and abroad that were exposed to malware and weaponized by Flax Typhoon.
The sanctions announced Friday generally bar financial institutions and individuals from doing business with Integrity Technology Group and freeze any of its U.S. assets.
It was not immediately clear what the Treasury Department breach might have accomplished, but the agency is an attractive target for government-sponsored hackers, according to the Office of Foreign Assets Control, which is responsible for imposing sanctions and determining which individuals represent a threat. to national security.