The FBI has taken down a second Chinese hacking group and recovered thousands of compromised devices, in a move FBI Director Christopher said Wednesday was “just one battle in a long fight.”
Speaking at the Aspen Cyber Summit in Washington, Lai said the Chinese hacking group known as “Flux Typhoon” was run by a Chinese company called Integrity Technology Group.
Lay said the company posed as an IT company and “conducted intelligence-gathering and reconnaissance activities for the Chinese government's security agencies.”
Wray said Flux Typhoon routed its malicious traffic through a network of hijacked devices known as a “botnet.” In this case, the devices included cameras and digital storage devices, which Wray said are commonly found in organizations large and small. He said half of the compromised devices were in the United States.
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Lai said the hacking group was backed by the Chinese government. (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images, File)
According to Wray, when the FBI cyber task force tried to take control of the botnet, the hackers launched a DDOS cyber attack before abandoning it.
Ray said Flux Typhoon operates similarly to an earlier hacking group known as Bolt Typhoon, which was first identified last year and remains a concern.
Wray said the hacking group launched DDOS cyber attacks against the FBI while investigators tried to take control of the botnet, which the group eventually abandoned. (iStock)
Ray said in April that Bolt Typhoon has been successfully integrated into several U.S. critical infrastructure companies, including those in communications, energy and water.
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Security experts from Microsoft and Google have previously linked the Bolt Typhoon hackers to China, and Lai said the activity was linked to tensions between the U.S. and China over Taiwan.
a Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs A spokesman said earlier this year that Volt Typhoon was part of the Ramsonware crime group and had no ties to the government.
Wray said combating Chinese hacking groups remains a priority for the FBI.
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“The Chinese government will continue to target your organizations and our critical infrastructure, either by its own means or hidden through its proxies,” Wray said.
Fox News Digital's Bree Stimson contributed to this report.
