China has condemned the US Treasury’s decision to penalize a Beijing-based cybersecurity business for its suspected involvement in repeated hacking operations targeting key US infrastructure.
When asked about the penalties imposed on Beijing-based Integrity Technology Group, a Chinese Foreign Ministry official stated that the government has clamped down on cyber intrusions and that Washington was exploiting the situation to “defame and smear China.”
“For some time now, the U.S. side has been playing up so-called Chinese cyber attacks and has even initiated illegal unilateral sanctions against China,” said Guo Jiakun, a ministry spokesperson. “China firmly opposes this and will take necessary measures to safeguard its legitimate rights and interests.”
Integrity Technology Group said the move by Washington had “no factual basis.”
“The company firmly opposes the U.S. Treasury Department’s unwarranted accusations and Illegal unilateral sanctions on the company,” the company, also known as Yongxin Zhicheng Technology Group, said in a statement Monday to the Shanghai Stock Exchange.
The Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control imposed sanctions on Integrity Technology on Friday, blocking access to U.S. property and bank accounts and prohibiting the targeted individuals and entities from conducting business with Americans. It highlighted many suspected hacks against US victims, including those linked to Flax Typhoon, a Chinese state-sponsored operation that targets US vital infrastructure.
The sanctions did not appear to be tied to an incident in which the Treasury Department revealed that Chinese hackers had remotely accessed many of its workstations and unclassified data, indicating a severe cybersecurity compromise.
The Treasury Department said it became aware of the issue on December 8, when a third-party software service provider, BeyondTrust, reported that hackers had stolen a key “used by the vendor to secure a cloud-based service used to remotely provide technical support” to employees.
U.S. authorities are dealing with the aftermath from a huge Chinese cyberespionage operation known as Salt Typhoon, which they claim provided officials in Beijing access to an unknown number of Americans’ private messages and phone conversations.
Officials reported late last month that Salt Typhoon had affected at least eight telecommunications firms and dozens of nations.
Integrity Technology stated that the penalties will have no detrimental effect on its company because it does not operate in the United States and has no assets there. It also stated that it follows all rules and regulations, and that it “has always adhered to the corporate vision and mission of bringing a sense of security to the world.”
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