The US imposes sanctions on a Chinese electronics company linked to the Flax Typhoon hacks
The US government has imposed sanctions on a Beijing-based cybersecurity company over its alleged links to a Chinese government-backed hacking group, tracked as Flax Typhoon.
The Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) on Friday Sanctions announced v. Integrity Technology Group for its role in “multiple computer intrusions against U.S. victims,” including critical U.S. infrastructure.
These sanctions come months after the US government accused Integrity Technology, Also known as Yongxin Zhichengto operate a botnet associated with the Flax Typhoon hacking group.
Robots, that was The FBI dismantled it in a court-authorized operation in SeptemberIt consists of more than 260,000 Internet-connected devices, including cameras, storage devices and routers, according to a joint advisory published by the FBI and NSA at the time. The agencies said the botnet has been operated and controlled by Integrity Technology Group since 2021 to hide the activities of Flax Typhoon hackers.
The Treasury Department said in its statement that Flax Typhoon used infrastructure associated with Integrity Tech to hack multiple U.S. and European organizations between mid-2022 and late 2023. The names of the hacking victims were not revealed, but the Treasury Department added that the Chinese-backed hacking group hacked “ Multiple servers and workstations in a California-based entity.”
According to a separate press release published by the US State Department on Friday, The Flax tornado was successfully targeted Many US universities, government agencies, telecommunications service providers, and media organizations.
The new sanctions, which designate Integrity Tech as an organization engaged in “malicious online activities,” come just days after the Treasury Department decided It confirmed that it was subjected to a cyber attack in December Which she attributed to hackers supported by the Chinese government. It is said that hackers It targeted the Treasury Department’s sanctions office, Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC).During the break-in, which gave the hackers remote access to Treasury Department employees and access to unclassified documents.
US officials said The Washington Post The hack may have given hackers access to information about Chinese organizations that the US government may be considering financial sanctions.
A Treasury Department spokesperson did not respond to TechCrunch’s request for comment. In its statement on Friday, the Treasury Department described Chinese malicious actors as “one of the most active and persistent threats” to US national security, referring to the targeting of the Treasury Department’s IT infrastructure.
Integrity Tech, whose shares are traded on the Shanghai Stock Exchange, did not respond to questions from TechCrunch.
