Chinese Hacking “Typhoons” Threaten U.S. Infrastructure
source: axios.com (contributed by FAN, Bill Amshey) | image: pexels.com
The Chinese government is running another broad campaign to hack as many American organizations as possible — heightening the threat across critical infrastructure.
Why it matters: The new hacking campaign suggests China could hold more expansive power to turn off key U.S. infrastructure than previously thought.
Driving the news: FBI director Christopher Wray said at the Aspen Cyber Summit on Wednesday that the bureau and its partners hijacked thousands of devices last week that a Chinese hacking group had infected with malware.
- Flax Typhoon, a new China-backed hacking team, infected home routers, firewalls, storage devices, and Internet of Things devices like cameras and video recorders.
Zoom in: As of June, Flax Typhoon’s botnet included more than 260,000 malware-infected devices across North America, South America, Europe, Africa, Southeast Asia and Australia, according to a U.S. government advisory.
- Half of the hijacked devices were located in the U.S., Wray said in his remarks.
- Security researchers at Black Lotus Labs said in a coinciding report that hackers have used the botnet to target U.S. and Taiwanese organizations in the military, government, higher education, telecommunications, defense and IT sectors.
- The FBI also alleged that the Flax Typhoon hackers worked for Integrity Technology Group, a Chinese tech company that does contract work for Beijing’s intelligence agencies.
- The FBI also said that Integrity Technology Group operated and controlled the botnet. Continue reading “Chinese hacking “typhoons” threaten U.S. infrastructure”