The Treasury Department imposed sanctions on a Beijing-based cybersecurity company on Friday, blaming it for helping Chinese hackers infiltrate US communications systems and conduct surveillance across four continents. The company, Integrity Technology Group, supported a Chinese state-sponsored hacking group known as Flax Typhoon in a campaign to break into foreign networks between the summer of 2022 and 2023.
The action came after the Treasury Department revealed in a letter to lawmakers this week that a Chinese intelligence agency had breached its systems in what appeared to be an espionage operation, gaining access to the workstations of government employees and unclassified documents.
The sanctions also follow a more damaging revelation last year that a group linked to Chinese intelligence agencies and known as Salt Typhoon had hacked US telecommunications networks, targeting the telephone conversations and text messages of an array of top political figures, including President-elect Donald J. Trump.
The actions were taken in an effort to disrupt China’s cyber capabilities, with the Treasury Department saying, “The United States will use all available tools to disrupt these threats as we continue working collaboratively to harden public and private sector cyber defenses.”
The Treasury Department will not hesitate to hold malicious cyberactors and their enablers accountable for their actions, said acting Under Secretary of the Treasury Bradley T. Smith.
Source link
