China-backed spies are said to have tore down their own 260,000-device botnet after the FBI and its international pals went after them. The botnet was

FBI boss says China 'burned down' 260,000-device botnet when confronted by Feds

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2024-09-19 17:00:07

China-backed spies are said to have tore down their own 260,000-device botnet after the FBI and its international pals went after them.

The botnet was controlled by the somewhat misnamed Integrity Technology Group, a Chinese business whose chairman has admitted that for years his company has "collected intelligence and performed reconnaissance for Chinese government security agencies," FBI Director Christopher Wray said at the Aspen Digital computer security conference on Wednesday. The internet-connected bots consisted of PCs, servers, and Internet-of-Things gadgets infected with remote-control malware, and more than half of which were in the US.

A Beijing-run crew called Flax Typhoon had been building the Mirai-based botnet since 2021 and was accused of spying on Taiwanese networks by Microsoft in 2023, although that claim is disputed.

Wray said Flax was lately taking aim at US critical infrastructure, government, and academics. The FBI's Cyber National Mission Force (CNMF) was called in, along with the NSA.