The United States government has been investigating what it described as a pervasive Chinese hacking operation that successfully compromised thousands of devices connected to the internet, Reuters reports.
This is according to two Western security officials and a person familiar with the situation. The FBI and the Justice Department received legal authorization to remotely disable aspects of the hacking campaign, according to Reuters.
Volt Typhoon, the hacking group at the center of the investigation, is especially concerning to intelligence officials because they believe it is but a small part of a much larger effort to compromise critical infrastructure, internet service providers, and connected military facilities.
Hacking has been a key concern for the Biden administration since he came into office. There are many who fear that it will play a key role in determining the outcome of a few elections. Volt Typhoon first came to light in the spring of 2023, with hackers stepping up their proverbial game late last year.
They even went so far as to leverage new techniques with which to further their goals. The far-reaching implications of the hacks led to a series of meetings between the White House and the private technology sector, which included several telecommunications and Security experts hypothesizing that the breaches could allow China to remotely disrupt important facilities in the Indo-Pacific region (Guam, Marshall Islands, Philippines, etc) that support U.S. military activities.
Sources said U.S. officials are concerned the hackers were working to hurt U.S. readiness in case of a Chinese invasion of Taiwan. The Justice Department and FBI declined to comment. The Chinese embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Western nations first caught wind of Volt Typhoon in May 2023, but Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Mao Ning dismissed the concerns as a "collective disinformation campaign" from the Five Eyes countries, a reference to the intelligence-sharing grouping of countries made up of the United States, Canada, New Zealand, Australia and the UK.
Volt Typhoon works by taking control of a large number of vulnerable digital devices, like routers, modems and internet-connected security cameras, and using them as masks to hide downstream attacks into sensitive targets, Reuters reports.
What Is BotNet?
Known as botnet, it is of great concern to security officials because it limits the visibility of cyber countermeasures that monitor for foreign activity in computer networks.
"How it works is the Chinese are taking control of a camera or modem that is positioned geographically right next to a port or ISP (internet service provider) and then using that destination to route their intrusions into the real target," said a former official familiar with the matter. "To the IT team at the downstream target it just looks like a normal, native user that's sitting nearby."
