The United States on Friday announced new cybersecurity sanctions against Integrity Technology Group, a Chinese company that the Treasury Department said was involved in multiple computer intrusions targeting American victims.
A U.S. State Department spokesman also issued a statement on the same day regarding the sanctions against Yongxin Zhicheng Technology Group. The statement said the company is a major contractor for the government of the People’s Republic of China and is linked to the Ministry of State Security.
Western officials have previously accused the Beijing-based company of being the mastermind behind a major Chinese hacking group nicknamed “Flax Typhoon.”
“ Chinese malicious cyber actors continue to be one of the most active and persistent threats to U.S. national security, as highlighted in the most recent Office of the Director of National Intelligence Annual Threat Assessment. These actors’ activities include continued targeting of U.S. government systems, including most recently the Department of the Treasury’s information technology infrastructure,” the Treasury statement said. “
Treasury will not hesitate to hold malicious cyber actors and those who enable them accountable for their actions,” Bradley T. Smith, acting undersecretary of the Treasury for counterterrorism and financial intelligence, said in the statement. “The United States will use every tool at its disposal to disrupt these threats, while we continue our collaborative efforts to strengthen public and private sector cyber defenses.”
The U.S. State Department statement mentioned that on September 18 last year, the U.S. Department of Justice announced a court-approved action to break up a botnet consisting of more than 200,000 consumer devices infected by Yongxin Zhicheng in the United States and around the world.
The State Department and Treasury Department’s statements on Friday both mentioned that on September 18 last year, the FBI, in coordination with the National Security Agency’s National Mission Cyber ​​Force and the “Five Eyes Alliance” partners, issued a joint cybersecurity warning highlighting the methods, techniques and procedures of “Mianma Typhoon” and the role played by Yongxin Zhicheng in supporting its malicious cyber activities.
FBI Director Christopher Wray said at a cybersecurity conference last year that Yongxin Zhicheng is ostensibly an information technology company, but it also “collects intelligence and conducts reconnaissance for the Chinese government security agencies.”
At the time, Chinese officials accused the United States and its allies of “jumping to conclusions and making unwarranted accusations and smears against China.”
As a result of the sanctions announced by the United States on Friday, all property and interests of the entity located in the United States or held by U.S. persons are blocked and must be reported to the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC). Transactions between the entity and any U.S. person or within the United States are generally prohibited unless a specific approval or exemption is obtained from the office. In addition, financial institutions or other persons who conduct certain transactions or activities with the sanctioned entities may also be subject to sanctions or enforcement.