Tag Archive for: targeting

Exclusive-US disabled Chinese hacking network targeting critical infrastructure, sources say

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By Christopher Bing and Karen Freifeld

(Reuters) – The U.S. government in recent months launched an operation to fight a pervasive Chinese hacking operation that successfully compromised thousands of internet-connected devices, according to two Western security officials and one person familiar with the matter.

The Justice Department and Federal Bureau of Investigation sought and received legal authorization to remotely disable aspects of the Chinese hacking campaign, the sources told Reuters.

Known as Volt Typhoon, the malicious cyber activity has alarmed intelligence officials who say it is part of a larger effort to compromise Western critical infrastructure, including naval ports, internet service providers and utilities.

Such breaches could enable China, national security experts said, to remotely disrupt important facilities in the Indo-Pacific region that in some form support or service U.S. military operations.

A Justice Department spokesperson declined to comment. A spokesperson for the FBI and the Chinese embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

When Western nations first warned about Volt Typhoon in May, Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said the hacking allegations were a “collective disinformation campaign” from the Five Eyes countries, a reference to the intelligence sharing grouping of countries made up of the United States, Canada, New Zealand, Australia and the UK.

(Reporting by Christopher Bing in Washington and Karen Freifeld in New York; Editing by Chris Sanders and Lisa Shumaker)

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China’s Hackers Keep Targeting US Water and Electricity Supplies

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An indictment from the US Department of Justice may have solved the mystery of how disgraced cryptocurrency exchange FTX lost over $400 million in crypto. The indictment, filed last week, alleges that three individuals used a SIM-swapping attack to steal hundreds of millions in virtual currency from an unnamed company. The timing and the amount stolen coincides with FTX’s theft. Meanwhile, in a letter obtained by WIRED this week, seven lawmakers have demanded the DOJ stop funding biased and inaccurate predictive policing tools until the agency has a way to ensure law enforcement won’t use them in a way that has a “discriminatory impact.”

In Florida, prosecutors say a 17-year-old named Alan Winston Filion is responsible for hundreds of swatting attacks around the United States. The news of his arrest was first reported by WIRED days before law enforcement made it public. It was the culmination of a multi-agency manhunt to piece together a trail of digital breadcrumbs left by the teenager. In Ukraine, unmanned aerial vehicles have been powerful tools since the Russian invasion began in February 2022. But as the war rages on, another kind of unmanned robot has increasingly appeared on the front-lines: the unmanned ground vehicle, or UGV.

For months lawyers affiliated with an India based hacker-for-hire firm called Appin Technology have used legal threats to censor reporting about the company’s alleged cyber mercenary past. The EFF, Techdirt, MuckRock, and DDoSecrets are now pushing back, publicly sharing details for the first time about the firm’s efforts to remove content from the web. It’s a dangerous world out there, so we’ve also got a list of some major patches issued in January that you can use to update your devices to keep them secure.

And there’s more. Each week, we highlight the news we didn’t cover in-depth ourselves. Click on the headlines below to read the full stories. And stay safe out there.

For years Western security officials have warned about the threat of China collecting data about millions of people and the country’s hackers infiltrating sensitive systems. This week, Federal Bureau of Investigation director Christopher Wray said hackers affiliated…

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FBI director warns Chinese hackers are targeting US infrastructure

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The comments align with assessments from outside cybersecurity firms, which said in May that Chinese hackers have been targeting U.S. critical infrastructure.

WASHINGTON — Chinese government hackers are busily targeting water treatment plants, the electrical grid, transportation systems and other critical infrastructure inside the United States, FBI Director Chris Wray told House lawmakers Wednesday in a fresh warning from Washington about Beijing’s global ambitions.

Underscoring the threat, the Justice Department and FBI announced just before the hearing that they had disrupted a botnet of hundreds of U.S.-based small office and home routers owned by private citizens and companies and hijacked by the Chinese state hackers to cover their tracks and hide their origin as they sowed the malware.

Speaking before the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party, Wray said there’s been “far too little public focus” on a cyber threat that affects “every American.”

“China’s hackers are positioning on American infrastructure in preparation to wreak havoc and cause real-world harm to American citizens and communities, if or when China decides the time has come to strike,” Wray he said.

Jen Easterly, the director of the Department of Homeland Security’s cybersecurity arm, voiced a similar sentiment at the hearing.

“This is a world where a major crisis halfway across the planet could well endanger the lives of Americans here at home through the disruption of our pipelines, the severing of our telecommunications, the pollution of our water facilities, the crippling of our transportation modes — all to ensure that they can incite societal panic and chaos and to deter our ability” to respond, she said.

The comments align with assessments from outside cybersecurity firms including Microsoft, which said in May that state-backed Chinese hackers had been targeting U.S. critical…

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US disables hacking network targeting critical infrastructure

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The US launched an operation to fight a pervasive Chinese hacking operation that successfully compromised thousands of internet-connected devices, according to two Western security officials and one person familiar with the matter.

The Justice Department (DoJ) and Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) sought and received legal authorization to remotely disable aspects of the Chinese hacking campaign, the sources told Reuters.

The Biden administration has increasingly focused on hacking, not only for fear that nation states may try to disrupt the US election in November, but because ransomware wreaked havoc on Corporate America in 2023.

The hacking group at the center of recent activity, Volt Typhoon, has especially alarmed intelligence officials who say it is part of a larger effort to compromise Western critical infrastructure, including naval ports, internet service providers and utilities.

While the Volt Typhoon campaign initially came to light in May 2023, the hackers expanded the scope of their operations late last year and changed some of their techniques, according to three people familiar with the matter.

The widespread nature of the hacks led to a series of meetings between the White House and private technology industry, including several telecommunications and cloud computing companies, where the US government asked for assistance in tracking the activity.

Such breaches could enable China, national security experts said, to remotely disrupt important facilities in the Indo-Pacific region that in some form support or service US military operations. Sources said US officials are concerned the hackers were working to hurt US readiness in case of a Chinese invasion of Taiwan.

China, which claims democratically governed Taiwan as its own territory, has increased its military activities near the island in recent years in response to what Beijing calls “collusion” between Taiwan and the United States.

The Justice Department and FBI declined to comment. The Chinese embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

When Western nations first warned about Volt Typhoon in May, Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said the hacking…

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