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The U.S. administration has sanctioned a Beijing - based cybersecurity company over its alleged links to a China authorities - punt hack on group , traverse as Flax Typhoon .
The Treasury Department ’s Office of Foreign Assets Control ( OFAC ) on Fridayannounced the sanctionsagainst the Integrity Technology Group for its purpose in “ multiple computing equipment encroachment incident against U.S. victims , ” including U.S. critical infrastructure .
The sanction res publica months after the U.S. government impeach Integrity Technology , also known as Yongxin Zhicheng , of running a botnet consort with the Flax Typhoon hack radical .
The botnet , which wasdismantled by the FBI in a court - authorized performance in September , was made up of more than 260,000 net - connected devices , including television camera , storage equipment , and routers , allot to a joint advisory published by the FBI and the National Security Agency at the time . The federal agency sound out the botnet had been operated and control by the Integrity Technology Group since 2021 to conceal the action of the Flax Typhoon hackers .
The Treasury said in its affirmation that Flax Typhoon used base linked to Integrity Tech to compromise multiple U.S. and European organizations between mid-2022 and late-2023 . The hack victim were not refer , but the Treasury added that the China - backed hacking group compromised “ multiple servers and workstation at a California - based entity . ”
According to a separate press button write by the U.S. Department of State on Friday , Flax Typhoon successfully targetedmultiple U.S. universities , political science agencies , telecommunications providers , and media organization .
The new sanctions , which designate Integrity Tech as an organization involved in “ malicious cyber - enabled activities , ” fare just days after the Treasuryconfirmed it was subject to a cyberattack in Decemberthat it attribute to China government - gage drudge . The hackers reportedlytargeted the Treasury ’s sanctions office , OFAC , during the intrusion , which give the hackers remote admission to Treasury employee and access to unclassified document .
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U.S. officials toldThe Washington Postthat the violation may have given the hackers entree to information about Chinese organisation that the U.S. government activity may be look at designate for financial sanction .
A spokesperson for the Treasury did not take back TechCrunch ’s request for comment . In its statement Friday , the Treasury call Chinese malicious player “ one of the most fighting and most unrelenting threats ” face U.S. home security measures , referencing the targeting of the Treasury ’s own IT base .
Integrity Tech , which is sell on the Shanghai Stock Exchange , did not respond to TechCrunch ’s questions .
