Director says FBI dismantles significant Chinese hacking group.
Authorities asserted that hundreds of thousands of devices worldwide were infected by a hacker collective known as Flax Typhoon. China disputes any involvement in the malicious botnet.
The FBI said on Wednesday that it had disrupted a Chinese hacking group nicknamed “Flax Typhoon” that targeted critical infrastructure in the United States.
The Flax Typhoon hackers installed malicious software on thousands of computers and other internet-connected devices including cameras, video recorders and routers.
Due to this, a vast network of compromised computers was created, or botnet.
The FBI said that among the targets were NGOs, universities, government agencies, media outlets, and telecom companies.
According to FBI Director Chris Wray, “Flax Typhoon’s actions caused real harm to its victims, who had to devote precious time to clean up the mess when they discovered the malware.”
According to Wray, the Integrity Technology Group, a Chinese company that operated under the pretense of an IT company but actually “collected intelligence and performed reconnaissance for the Chinese government and security agencies,” was in charge of Flax Typhoon.
Australian, British, and Canadian law enforcement also accused the Integrity Technology Group of being the source of the botnet, which they claimed had compromised over 250,000 devices globally, in a separate advisory on Wednesday.
