U.S. and Allies Accuse Chinese Firms of Supporting State-Backed Hacking Operations

An unusually wide coalition that includes the United States, its English-speaking allies, and other nations such as Germany, Italy, and Japan has jointly accused three Chinese companies of involvement in state-linked hacking activity.

In a 37-page advisory released on Wednesday, the governments alleged that Sichuan Juxinhe Network Technology, Beijing Huanyu Tianqiong Information Technology, and Sichuan Zhixin Ruijie Network Technology supplied “cyber-related products and services to China’s intelligence services, including multiple units in the People’s Liberation Army and Ministry of State Security.”

Sichuan Juxinhe has already been sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury for alleged links to the hacking group known as “Salt Typhoon.” The group has been accused of sweeping up massive volumes of American call records, including communications tied to senior officials in Washington. Meanwhile, Beijing Huanyu Tianqiong and Sichuan Zhixin Ruijie were said to have been affected by recent, unexplained data leaks.

Efforts to reach Sichuan Juxinhe in the past have been unsuccessful, and Reuters reported that it was unable to find contact details for the other two companies. Beijing has consistently denied backing cyber-espionage operations.

While U.S. officials have long raised alarms about hacking attributed to China, the activity linked to Salt Typhoon has been described as particularly far-reaching. Last year, one senator called its breadth “mind-boggling,” while another suggested it may have represented “the largest telecommunications hack in our nation’s history.”

Speaking to The Wall Street Journal in an interview published Wednesday, Brett Leatherman, the FBI’s top cyber official, described Salt Typhoon as responsible for “one of the more consequential cyber espionage breaches we have seen here in the United States.” According to the Journal, the group targeted more than 80 countries and displayed varying degrees of interest in over 600 companies.

The U.S. frequently identifies Chinese and other foreign entities it accuses of conducting cyber espionage, sometimes in coordination with its partners in the “Five Eyes” intelligence-sharing alliance—Australia, Britain, Canada, and New Zealand. The latest statement, however, carried signatures from a much broader group: the Five Eyes members, joined by the Czech Republic, Finland, Germany, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Poland, and Spain.

By fLEXI tEAM