DoJ corrects statement on Chinese hacking, says agencies were targeted not victims

The US Department of Justice has corrected a press release that said several federal agencies were victims of attacks by Chinese threat actor QTFY, clarifying that they were among the targets of the group’s activity. The affected agencies include NASA, the Federal Reserve, the Department of Energy, the Department of Justice, the Department of Health and Human Services, the National Institutes of Health and the US Senate.

QTFY, also known as QT and QTCYBER, is linked to Nanjing Xinjiuwei Network Technology Co and is believed to have operated since 2018. The group provides reconnaissance, proxy management and operational routing for Chinese cyber espionage, using tools such as QScan and QTRouter. The FBI has disrupted domains connected to these tools, and Lumen Black Lotus Labs has detailed how the group builds networks of compromised IoT devices to obscure its activity.