A Beijing-based cybersecurity company was sanctioned by the US Department of Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control ( OFAC ) and charged it with supporting a group of hackers who had attacked American organizations.
Integrity Technology Group, according to the OFAC, has been a victim of numerous system intrusions in the US. Flax Typhoon, a Taiwanese destructive state-sponsored digital group that has been engaged since at least 2021 and frequently targets businesses within US critical infrastructure sectors, has been given the all-clear credit for these incidents.  ,
Bradley Smith, acting director of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence, stated,” The Treasury Department will never hesitate to hold malicious computer celebrities and their drivers accountable for their actions.” As we continue to work together to strengthen public and private sector computer defenses, the US will employ all available means to counteract these risks.
According to the OFAC, Flax Typhoon has compromised computer systems in North America, Europe, Africa, and across Asia, with a special emphasis on Taiwan. It uses legitimate remote access software to keep consistent control over its victims ‘ networks before attempting to gain first access to their computers using publicly known vulnerabilities.
According to OFAC, Flax Typhoon players used system connected to Integrity Tech during hacking operations against many victims between mid-2022 and soon 2023. Flax Typhoon frequently received and sent data from Integrity Technology facilities at the time.
” On this kind of unnecessary and groundless claims, we’ve made apparent our place more than once”, Mao Ning, a director of the Chinese Foreign Ministry, said in a press briefing. ” China opposes all forms of phishing and, in particular, we oppose spreading China-related deception motivated by political agenda”.
In an editorial published on January 2, The China Daily, a state-owned newspaper, claimed that the US had used cutting-edge technology to insert Foreign words and codes into ransomware in the attacked methods to avert the perception that Flax Typhoon is related to China.  ,
Instead of “wasting its day concocting yet another far-fetched plot where Beijing plays the baddie,” it recommended Washington examine cybersecurity with Beijing in working groups.
In an article published on January 4, a Fujian-based journalist using the moniker” Little Penguin” claims that” the US was inferior to others in security knowledge.” ” In rage, it began to pour filthy water on China”.
” The US is the one who launched cyberattacks. More than a thousand centrifuges at Iran’s Natanz nuclear hospital failed as a result of a computer virus that was implanted by the US and Israel in 2007, according to the author.  ,
He claims that the US tried various means of attack, such as restrictions, to harm Chinese companies because it has for a very long time failed to break into China’s security system.
The OFAC’s latest sanction came after the US Justice Department on September 18, 2024, announced a court-authorized law enforcement operation that disrupted a botnet consisting of more than 200, 000 consumer devices ( so-called “zombies” in computer jargon ) in the US and worldwide.
In addition to Flax Typhoon, two additional China-based qualified intrusion adversaries, Ethereal Panda and Volt Storms, likewise became engaged in 2021, according to Texas-based security firm Crowdstrike.  ,
Volt Storms
On May 24, 2023, Microsoft said Volt Storms targeted critical infrastructure organizations in Guam and elsewhere in the US. On August 24 of the same year, it said Flax Typhoon targeted dozens of organizations in Taiwan with the key intention of performing espionage.
In a report released in February 2024, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency ( CISA ), National Security Agency ( NSA ), and Federal Bureau of Investigation ( FBI ) stated that the state-sponsored cyber actors in the People’s Republic of China are attempting to pre-position themselves for cyberattacks in the event of a major crisis or conflict with the US.
Five Eyes countries’ Joint Cybersecurity Advisory said Volt Storms might launch destructive cyberattacks against critical infrastructure in the US and allies.
In March, Michael Regan, administrator of the US Environmental Protection Agency, and Jake Sullivan, national security advisor to the president, told US state governors in a letter that Volt Stormss cyber attacks were striking water and wastewater systems throughout the US.
On April 15 last year, China’s National Computer Virus Emergency Response Center (CVERC) and the 360 Digital Security Group jointly published a report titled “Volt Storms: A Conspiratorial Swindling Campaign Targets with US Congress and Taxpayers Conducted by US Intelligence Community.”
“Volt Storms is actually a ransomware cybercriminal group that calls itself the ‘Dark Power’ and is not sponsored by any state or region,” Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian said last April, citing the CVERC report.
He added that some US citizens have been using origin-tracing of cyberattacks to target and body China, making the claim that the US is the victim while China is the other way around and politicizing security concerns.
Cao Xing, a doctor at Beijing’s China University of Political Science and Law, writes in an article that was published on January 3 that” the most recent criticism against China is just the tip of the iceberg.”  ,
Looking back on the past several years, Cao says it’s not difficult to see how the US has occasionally tied” digital risks” to China. ” For instance, the US had blamed China for the hacking of senior US authorities ‘ email accounts, including those of the US Ambassador to China.”
He claims that China’s studies have now established that the complaints made by the United States were unsupported. He claims that it’s better for the earth to co-operate and address the issues rather than engage in blind conflict because the intricate web culture may have become a stage for “modern warfare.”
In an annual report submitted to the US Congress on December 18, the US Department of Defense said that since at least 2019, Volt Storms has been compromising and prepositioning itself on US critical infrastructure organizations’ networks to enable disruption or destruction of critical services in the event of increased geopolitical tensions or military conflict with the US and its allies.
The department said Volt Storms’s targets span multiple critical infrastructure sectors – including communications, energy, transportation systems and water – in the continental and non-continental US and its territories, including Guam.
It claimed that China’s state-sponsored hackers targeted US defense organizations throughout 2023 and that they had been stealing sensitive information for economic and military gain.  ,
” The targeted information can benefit the PRC’s defense high-technology industries, support the PRC’s military modernization, provide the PRC’s leadership with insights into US plans and intentions, and enable diplomatic negotiations”, it said.  ,
The Asia Times has Yong Jian as a contributor. He is a Chinese journalist who specializes in Chinese technology, economy and politics.  ,