WASHINGTON — On Friday, the U.S. Treasury imposed sanctions on a cybersecurity firm located in Beijing due to its alleged involvement in a series of hacking incidents aimed at critical infrastructure within the United States.
The sanctions were levied against Integrity Technology Group, Inc. for allegedly orchestrating multiple attacks targeting American entities. These incidents include attacks associated with Flax Typhoon, a campaign believed to be sponsored by the Chinese state, which is known to focus specifically on U.S. critical infrastructure.
This announcement follows a recent report from the Treasury about significant cybersecurity breaches, where Chinese hackers managed to gain remote access to a number of workstations and unclassified documents within the Treasury Department. Officials became aware of this breach on December 8, after a third-party service provider, BeyondTrust, indicated that hackers had compromised a crucial security key intended for a cloud-based service that is used to facilitate remote technical support for employees.
It’s important to note that the sanctions announced on Friday do not seem to directly relate to the earlier incidents reported on December 8 involving the Treasury hack. Bradley Smith, the Acting Under Secretary of the Treasury, emphasized that the U.S. government is committed to disrupting cyber threats as part of ongoing efforts to strengthen cyber defenses in both the public and private sectors.
The new sanctions serve to freeze any U.S. assets associated with the company, limit access to American banking systems, and prevent public and private businesses from engaging in transactions with the sanctioned entity.
Currently, U.S. officials are also dealing with the repercussions of a significant Chinese cyberespionage initiative known as Salt Typhoon. This operation reportedly allowed Beijing to access private communications, including text messages and phone calls, from an unspecified number of American citizens.