US Government Departments Breached by Chinese State-Sponsored Hackers
Chinese state-sponsored hackers have been linked to a massive breach of multiple US government departments and agencies. The hackers used a botnet of compromised IoT devices to obscure their traffic, allowing them to infiltrate networks undetected.
The affected institutions include the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the Federal Reserve, the Department of Justice, the Senate, the Department of Energy, the Department of Health and Human Services, and the National Institutes of Health. The hackers created a platform that provided paid-for hacking services, which included detecting and infecting internet-connected devices to use as part of a proxy network.
The US Office of Public Affairs revealed that the hackers' operation was disrupted by the Justice Department and FBI, who seized the domains associated with the botnet and hacking platforms. The Chinese state-sponsored hacking group behind the breach is named 'QTFY', which was hired by the Nanjing Xinjiuwei Network Technology Company.
FBI Director Kash Patel stated that the disruption of the QTFY operation was part of a range of technical operations designed to disrupt China's ability to launch hacking activities on US government systems and critical infrastructure. The authorization to disrupt the operation comes as part of President Trump's Cyber Strategy for America, which aims to shape adversary behavior and defend the homeland in cyberspace.