Official announcements from the U.S. Department of State or Treasury

FBI Disrupts Second Chinese Hacking Group 'Flax Typhoon,' Seizing 260,000 Devices

Sep 18, 2024, 04:55 PM

The FBI has announced the disruption of a second major Chinese hacking group, known as 'Flax Typhoon.' FBI Director Christopher Wray stated that the group, which posed as an IT firm, was actually collecting intelligence for Chinese state agencies. The operation, which involved the FBI, NSA, and other U.S. government agencies, took control of a botnet consisting of 260,000 Internet of Things (IoT) devices. This botnet targeted critical infrastructure in the U.S. and abroad, compromising hundreds of thousands of devices, including routers and firewalls. The FBI's joint operation, a court-authorized operation announced at the Aspen Cyber Summit, successfully dismantled the botnet, freeing thousands of impacted devices from the control of Flax Typhoon.