Justice Department Revises Chinese Hacking Claims, Clarifying Agencies Were Targets Not Victims

The Justice Department is revising its statements on a Chinese state-sponsored hacking operation to clarify that listed government agencies were targets rather than confirmed victims.

The department says it edited an August 26th press release after the original version described agencies including NASA, the Federal Reserve, the U.S. Senate, the Department of Energy, the Department of Justice, the Department of Health and Human Services and the National Institutes of Health as victims.

The updated statement now calls them “among the targets of QTFY,” a People’s Republic of China state-sponsored group.

A note on the Justice Department page explains the reason for the change.

“Edits have been made to ensure this press release accurately reflects the government’s allegations in the affidavit in support of the domain seizures.”

The supporting affidavit shows only some entities were compromised.

Confirmed intrusions occurred in September 2024 at three Department of Energy national laboratories, the National Institutes of Health, a Health and Human Services agency and a U.S. security device manufacturer.

An attempted breach of NASA was unsuccessful because the agency had patched the targeted software.

The distinction reduces the number of confirmed breaches attributed to the years-long Chinese cyber-espionage effort against US critical infrastructure and sensitive networks.

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The post Justice Department Revises Chinese Hacking Claims, Clarifying Agencies Were Targets Not Victims appeared first on The Daily Hodl.