The US on Friday slapped sanctions on a Beijing-based hacking outfit with links to the Chinese government, accusing it of targeting “critical” US government infrastructure.
The US Department of the Treasury said it had targeted Integrity Technology Group Inc for its role in multiple attacks since 2021 against US entities often within “critical infrastructure sectors.”
US Department of State spokesman Matthew Miller said Integrity Tech was “a large PRC [People’s Republic of China] government contractor with ties to the [Chinese] Ministry of State Security.”
Photo: Reuters
The hackers working for Integrity Tech, “known to the private sector as Flax Typhoon, were working at the direction of the PRC government, targeting critical infrastructure in the United States and overseas,” Miller said.
“The Treasury Department will not hesitate to hold malicious cyberactors and their enablers accountable for their actions,” US Acting Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence Brad Smith said.
Friday’s announcement came days after the Treasury Department said a Chinese state-sponsored actor was behind a cyberbreach resulting in access to some of its workstations, according to a letter to US Congress seen by Agence France-Presse.
The actor, who was not named, compromised a third-party cybersecurity service provider and was able to remotely access the Treasury Department workstations and some unclassified documents, according to a Treasury Department spokesperson.
In its announcement on Friday, the Treasury Department said that “Chinese malicious cyber actors” were responsible for the “recent targeting of Treasury’s own IT infrastructure,” but did not accuse Integrity Tech of being behind the attack.
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