USA: Hackers operating under Chinese sponsorship infiltrated the systems of the Fed, NASA, and government offices
The US Department of Justice announced that federal agencies, including the Fed and NASA, were targeted by a Chinese-sponsored hacking group. The group utilized attack platforms known as QScan and QTRouter.
The US Department of Justice announced today, Wednesday, that the Fed, NASA, the Department of Justice itself, and other federal agencies have fallen victim to intrusions into their computer systems by a group of hackers operating under the sponsorship of the Chinese government. As part of measures against the group, the Department of Justice announced that it had seized domains used for attack infrastructure.
These attack platforms, known as QScan and QTRouter, were the basis for attacks on critical infrastructure in the US and other sensitive networks. Among the victims were also the US Senate, the Department of Energy, the Department of Health, and the National Institutes of Health. According to court documents, other targets of the group included hospitals, telecommunications companies, power companies, financial institutions, and defense contractors. The Department of Justice stated that the infrastructure had been used to attack sensitive networks in the US and around the world since at least 2018.
Court documents unsealed in a federal court in California revealed that a group of hackers operating under the sponsorship of the Chinese government, known as QTFY, created and operated the attack platform. According to the documents, members of QTFY were employed by the Nanjing Xinjiuwei Network Technology Company, based in China – among its clients are the Ministry of State Security of China, the country's civilian intelligence agency, and the People's Liberation Army. China consistently denies cyber activity of this kind.
US Attorney General Todd Blanche stated in a message:
«Malicious hackers operating under state sponsorship and attacking the critical infrastructure of the US will be arrested and prosecuted. We are here to ensure the safety of the American public, and we will use all the tools at our disposal to keep this promise».
Blanche added that «federal law enforcement authorities investigated and disabled the malware of the People's Republic of China during the latest in a series of technological operations designed to dismantle infrastructure used for extensive hacking activity under Chinese sponsorship».
