US law enforcement said it has seized internet domains allegedly used by Chinese state-sponsored hackers to target critical American infrastructure. Using the seized platforms, the Chinese hacker groups were able to break into NASA, the Federal Reserve, the National Institutes of Health, and the US Senate, the Justice Department said in a statement.
Court documents showed that QTFY offers computer hacking services to paying customers, including the Chinese Ministry of State Security and the People’s Liberation Army.
The Justice Department and FBI said the seized hacking platforms known as “QScan” and “QTRouter” were used by a hacking group known as “QTFY. QTFY was employed by Nanjing Xinjiuwei Network Technology Company, a China-based technology company, according to the Justice Department. Victims of QTFY computer intrusion activity included NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration), the Federal Reserve, the US Senate, and the departments of energy, justice, and health and human services, the agency said. “Federal law enforcement investigated and disabled the PRC’s malicious software, the latest in a series of technical operations to dismantle indiscriminate hacking activities sponsored by the People’s Republic of China,” Attorney General Todd Blanche said in a statement. QScan searched for and automatically infected thousands of internet-connected devices around the world, according to the court documents. The platform enabled hackers to conceal the Chinese origin of their activities, the department said.
