U.S. authorities have thwarted another China-backed botnet, freeing hundreds of thousands of infected devices in the process, FBI Director Christopher Wray said.

U.S. law enforcement has disrupted a second major Chinese hacking group nicknamed "Flax Typhoon" and wrested thousands of compromised devices from its grasp, FBI Director Christopher Wray said on Wednesday.

The United States and allied countries said Wednesday they had taken control of a network of 260,000 internet-connected cameras, routers and other devices that the Chinese government had been using to spy on sensitive organizations.

The FBI said the targets included universities, government agencies, telecommunications providers, media organizations and nongovernmental organizations.