Richard Sanders, Staff Writer
On Friday, the US imposed sanctions on a hacking group based in Beijing that has connections to the Chinese government, accusing them of attacking essential US government infrastructure.
The US Department of the Treasury identified Integrity Technology Group Inc as responsible for various cyberattacks on US entities, particularly within critical infrastructure sectors, since 2021.
Matthew Miller, a spokesperson for the US Department of State, noted that Integrity Tech is a major contractor for the People’s Republic of China government and has links to the Ministry of State Security.
Miller stated that the hackers from Integrity Tech, known in the private sector as Flax Typhoon, operated under the direction of the Chinese government, focusing on critical infrastructure both in the US and abroad.
Brad Smith, the Acting Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence, emphasized that the Treasury Department is committed to holding accountable those involved in malicious cyber activities and their supporters.
This announcement followed a recent report from the Treasury Department regarding a cyber breach linked to a Chinese state-sponsored entity, which gained access to some of its workstations, as outlined in a letter to Congress obtained by Agence France-Presse.
The unnamed actor compromised a third-party cybersecurity provider, allowing them to remotely access Treasury workstations and certain unclassified documents. In their Friday statement, the Treasury Department attributed the recent targeting of its IT infrastructure to “Chinese malicious cyber actors” but did not directly link Integrity Tech to this particular breach.
