The FBI, NSA and other U.S. government agencies detailed a Chinese-government operation that used 260,000 of internet-connected devices to launch cyberattacks. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved.

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 FBI has disrupted a second Chinese hacking group, recovering thousands of compromised devices in what FBI Director Christopher described Wednesday as "just one round in a much longer fight." Wray spoke at the Aspen Cyber Summit in Washington and said ...

"The government’s malware disabling commands, which interacted with the malware’s native functionality, were extensively tested prior to the operation," according to the DOJ.

A hacker group known as Flax Typhoon was able to infect hundreds of thousands of devices around the world, authorities said. China has denied any involvement in the malicious botnet.

The Flax Typhoon campaign used malware it put on cameras, video recorders and home and office routers, to create a massive network of infected computers and commit cybercrimes, the agency says.

And with that realization, they essentially burned down their new infrastructure and abandoned their botnet.” Wray said Flax Typhoon appeared to build on the exploits and tactics of another China-linked hacking group,