A Chinese cybersecurity firm and a cyber actor based in Shanghai have been subject to sanctions by the U.S. Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control. Yin Kecheng, who is associated with China's Ministry of State Security (MSS) and is believed to have been a cyber actor for more than ten years, is the target of the sanctions.
Sichuan Juxinhe Network Technology Co., LTD., a cybersecurity firm based in Sichuan that the Treasury claimed was directly involved in a number of cyberattacks, is also targeted by the sanctions. Another Chinese hacking group called Salt Typhoon (also known as Earth Estries, FamousSparrow, GhostEmperor, and UNC2286) has been linked to the activity. A reward of up to $10 million is being offered by the Treasury for information that could help identify or locate any individuals acting under the control or at the command of a foreign state-sponsored adversary.
The FCC will mandate that service providers submit an annual certification to the agency. Prior to the cyber espionage group infiltrating the networks of AT&T, Lumen Technologies, T-Mobile, Verizon, and other providers, Salt Typhoon was initially discovered on federal networks. In an effort to stop Chinese threat actors from engaging in malicious cyber activity, the Treasury has taken numerous actions, the most recent of which is the designations.
Earlier this week, Jen Easterly, director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), stated, "China's sophisticated and well-resourced cyber program represents the most serious and significant cyber threat to our nation." Three additional businesses are also being targeted by the agency: Wuhan Xiaoruizhi Science and Technology Company (APT31), Sichuan Silence Information Technology (Pacific Rim), and Integrity Technology Group (Flax Typhoon).