The U.S. Treasury Department has imposed sanctions on the Beijing-based Integrity Technology Group over allegations of the company's involvement in cyber intrusions supporting Chinese state-sponsored hacking activities.

Integrity Tech is accused of facilitating hacking incidents directed by a group known as Flax Typhoon, which has been reportedly active since 2021 and targets critical U.S. infrastructures. According to the Treasury's statement, these incidents connected the company to numerous computer intrusion events against various U.S. entities, ranging from government agencies to telecommunications firms (SCMP).

In its official capacity, the Treasury confirmed that the hackers from Integrity Technology had been working under China's Ministry of State Security, further complicating international cybersecurity dynamics. On the day when the sanctions were announced, Treasury stated, "Chinese malicious cyber actors continue to be one of the most active and persistent threats to U.S. national security" (The Hill).

The sanctions come in the wake of a recent breach where the Treasury Department acknowledged that its systems had been infiltrated, allowing hackers access to sensitive unclassified documents. This breach of government systems follows a series of coordinated attempts by Chinese-affiliated hackers to penetrate various sectors (The New York Times).

Following this, Integrity Tech's operations have been largely restricted, as all of its properties and interests within the U.S. have been blocked, and any transactions involving U.S. financial institutions with the company are prohibited. The Justice Department's earlier operations revealed that Integrity Tech was managing a botnet composed of over 260,000 devices, directing them towards malicious activities while obscuring the hackers' identities (The Hill).

The acting undersecretary of the Treasury indicated that the U.S. would persist in using all available tools to counter this cyber threat, emphasizing the government's commitment to bolstering both public and private sector cybersecurity defenses (The New York Times).

In a firm statement, Bradley Smith from the Treasury noted, "The United States will continue to hold malicious cyberactors and their enablers accountable for their actions," underlining the government's ongoing efforts to safeguard its critical infrastructure from foreign cyber threats (SCMP).

Beijing, in response to these allegations, dismissed them as baseless claims intended for political self-serving purposes, contributing to the escalating tensions surrounding cyber warfare between the two nations.

For more details, visit the original reports from South China Morning Post, The Hill, and The New York Times.