US sanctions Chinese firm behind sweeping Salt Typhoon telecom hacks
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The Treasury Department also sanctioned an individual involved in recent Chinese hacks into its own systems.
The Treasury Department on Friday sanctioned Chinese firm Sichuan Juxinhe Network Technology Co. and Shanghai-based hacker Yin Kecheng for their roles in major hacks that allowed access to sensitive, data-rich systems, in a final Biden administration salvo targeting the hackers.
Sichuan Juxinhe had “direct involvement” with China’s Ministry of State Security in infiltrating swaths of U.S. telecommunications and internet service providers, known broadly as the Salt Typhoon hacks, that intercepted communications of high-value political officials and the wiretap request platforms of major communications operators, Treasury said in a statement.
At least nine U.S. telecom companies were ensnared in the hacks. The hacking unit has also burrowed into the telecommunications systems of dozens of other providers around the world.
Kecheng — who has been a known cyber actor for over a decade — is closely tied with Beijing’s MSS and was “associated with the recent compromise of the Department of the Treasury’s Departmental Offices network,” the statement also said.
Those Treasury hacks have compromised some of the agency’s most sensitive systems, including those involved in sanctioning and assets control, as well as the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S., which conducts national security reviews of foreign acquisitions. Outgoing Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen’s computer was also accessed in those hacks, Bloomberg News reported Thursday.
China’s embassy in Washington, D.C. has repeatedly denied any Chinese government involvement in cyber intrusions against U.S. systems, and has often flipped the blame back on the U.S. for hacks into China-based networks.
Donald Trump-appointed officials and allies have vowed to exact revenge on China for the hacks, calling for a more offensive deterrent approach in cyberspace. John Ratcliffe, Trump’s pick to head the CIA, said in his nomination hearing this week he intends to develop a cyber deterrence strategy with other national security chiefs.