WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The United States disrupted a Chinese hacking operation that targeted U.S. critical infrastructure, two senior American officials said during a media briefing on Wednesday.
The operation disrupted hundreds of U.S.-based small office or home office routers, part of a “botnet”, which had been hijacked by China’s state-sponsored hackers for spying, Sean Newell, Deputy Chief with the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ)’s National Security Division said on the call.
The United States and its key allies disclosed the Chinese hacking operation together in May 2023, saying the espionage had also targeted U.S. military entities. The Chinese government called the allegations a collective disinformation campaign at the time.
“These cyber actors use this botnet to conceal the hacking of US and foreign critical infrastructure among other malicious cyber activities,” Newell said on the call, which was done jointly with the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
The U.S. officials obtained court authorization to conduct the operation, which involved removing the malicious files from the infected routers, and ensuring they couldn’t be re-infected, the officials said. Reuters exclusively reported earlier this week about this U.S. operation against this Chinese hacking activity that is known as Volt Typhoon.
A spokesperson for China’s government called the U.S. allegations on Volt Typhoon “irresponsible criticism.”
“The Chinese government has been categorical in opposing hacking attacks and the abuse of information technology,” the spokesperson said, alleging in turn that the United States was involved in hacking and “eavesdropping more than other countries.”
(Reporting by Zeba Siddiqui in San Francisco and and Rami Ayyub and Christopher Bing in Washington; Editing by Lisa Shumaker and Chizu Nomiyama)
Disclaimer: This report is auto generated from the Reuters news service. ThePrint holds no responsibilty for its content.