DOJ: Chinese State-Sponsored Hackers Breached Senate, Federal Reserve, Multiple Agences

The DOJ said Wednesday it had seized internet domains tied to two hacking platforms that Chinese state-sponsored operatives used to break into the Federal Reserve, the U.S. Senate, NASA and several other federal agencies.

CNBC reports that the DOJ said the platforms, known as QScan and QTRouter, were built and run by a Chinese state-sponsored group it calls QTFY. Court documents unsealed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California identify QTFY as operating out of Nanjing Xinjiuwei Network Technology Co., a China-based firm. The DOJ said QTFY’s paying customers included the People’s Republic of China’s Ministry of State Security and the People’s Liberation Army.

Beyond the Federal Reserve, the Senate, and NASA, the DOJ named the Department of Justice itself, the Energy Department, the Department of Health and Human Services, and the National Institutes of Health as victims of the intrusion campaign. A court filing describing additional targets stated: “Other targeted networks include those operated by hospitals, telecommunications providers, power companies, financial institutions, and defense contractors.”

Both pieces of malware had the seized domains hard-coded into them, and officials said removing the domains rendered QScan and QTRouter inoperable. The department said the platforms were “used to target U.S. critical infrastructure and other sensitive networks.” It did not disclose the extent of any damage caused by the intrusions at the agencies or other targets.

Attorney General Todd Blanche framed the seizure as part of a broader campaign against Chinese hacking operations. “State-sponsored malicious hackers preying on America’s critical infrastructure will be stopped and prosecuted. We are here to ensure security for the American people and will use every tool we have to keep that promise,” Blanche said in a statement issued Wednesday. He added that “Federal law enforcement investigated and disabled the PRC’s malicious software, the latest in a series of technical operations to dismantle indiscriminate hacking activities sponsored by the People’s Republic of China.”

Breitbart News previously reported that a former senior adviser for the Federal Reserve Board of Governors has been sentenced for sharing sensitive economic information with Chinese spies:

Sixty-four-year-old John Harold Rogers of Vienna, Virginia, was sentenced to 38 months in federal prison and 12 months of supervised release for lying to government investigators about providing the information to those individuals, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia announced Wednesday.

Court papers said during his decades of service with the FRB, he had access to restricted information about monetary policy and was also entrusted with confidential information.

…

In a video posted Wednesday, U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro said Rogers’ sentence was one of the longest ever handed down for providing false statements to federal investigators.

“He sold out his country and other members of the Federal Reserve Board, and he hid behind a lie,” she said.