FBI says it has disrupted major Chinese hacking operation that threatened US critical infrastructure

CNN —

The FBI has used a court order to seize control of a network of hundreds of thousands of hacked internet routers and other devices that Chinese government-linked hackers were using to threaten critical infrastructure in the US and overseas, FBI Director Christopher Wray said Wednesday.

“It is just one round in a much longer fight,” Wray said in a speech at the Aspen Cyber Summit in Washington, DC. “The Chinese government is going to continue to target your organizations and our critical infrastructure.”

The massive web of hacked devices — known as a botnet — was a menace that the Chinese hackers could have used to conduct targeted cyberattacks on US companies or government agencies, according to an advisory released by the US and its “Five Eyes” allies (the English-speaking alliance that includes Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the United Kingdom). As of June, the botnet included over 260,000 hacked devices from all over the world, from North and South America to Australia, according to US officials. Those hacked devices ranged from webcams to DVRs to routers, and about half of them were located in the US, according to Wray.

A spokesperson for the Chinese Embassy in Washington called the US allegations “groundless” and accused the US government of conducting cyberattacks against China.

It’s the latest tit-for-tat in the often-tense relations between US and China in cyberspace. The US government has long warned that another Chinese government-backed hacking group has been lurking in US transportation and communication networks, waiting to use that access to disrupt any US response to a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan.

That Chinese hacking unit is preparing to “wreak havoc and cause real-world harm” to