US imposes sanctions on 'Flax Typhoon', a hacking group that has ties to China's govt

The United States on Friday (January 3) imposed sanctions on a Beijing-based hacking group with ties to the Chinese government.

Washington accused the group of targeting critical US government infrastructure in cyberattacks dating back to 2021.

The Treasury Department said the sanctions targeted Integrity Technology Group for its role in cyberattacks on US entities, including those in critical infrastructure sectors. The department described the company as a significant contractor for the Chinese government.

State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said that hackers working for Integrity Tech, a.k.a ‘Flax Typhoon’, were operating at the direction of the Chinese government, “targeting critical infrastructure in the United States and overseas.”

More from World

Earthquake of magnitude 5.9 jolts Assam, tremors felt in Bhutan and north Bengal 5 US F-35 jets land in Puerto Rico amid tensions with Venezuela

Acting Treasury Undersecretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence Bradley Smith said the US would continue to hold cyber actors and their enablers accountable. “The Treasury Department will not hesitate to hold malicious cyber actors and their enablers accountable for their actions,” Smith said in a statement.

Backdrop to the sanctions

The sanctions come days after the Treasury disclosed that a China state-sponsored hacking group had breached its systems earlier this year. The unnamed actor gained access to some of the department’s workstations and unclassified documents by compromising a third-party cybersecurity provider, according to a Treasury spokesperson.

The treasury department hack followed news in late October that the two major US presidential campaigns were targeted. The FBI had blamed those attacks on China.

While Friday’s announcement attributed the breach to “Chinese malicious cyber actors,” it did not accuse Integrity Tech of involvement in the attack on Treasury systems.

Asked about the report of the hacking incident, Liu Pengyu, spokesperson for the Chinese Embassy in Washington, had earlier said that the “irrational” US claim was “without any factual basis” and represented “smear attacks” against Beijing.

Impact Shorts

More Shorts

‘The cries of this widow will echo’: In first public remarks, Erika Kirk warns Charlie’s killers they’ve ‘unleashed a fire’

Trump urges Nato to back sanctions on Russia, calls for 50–100% tariffs on China

Chinese companies, individuals, and entities frequently face US sanctions, which Washington employs as a critical tool in its foreign policy toward Beijing.

With inputs from agencies