US seizes domains used by China-linked hackers to target infrastructure

The U.S. Department of Justice and the FBI have seized seven internet domains used by Chinese state-linked hackers to target critical infrastructure and computer networks globally. The operation targeted hacking tools allegedly operated by Integrity Technology Group, a Beijing-based cybersecurity firm with contracts from the Chinese government. These tools, including Microscan and FishHub, were used for reconnaissance, identifying security weaknesses, and conducting spear-phishing campaigns.

In conjunction with these seizures, federal agencies face an October 11 deadline to patch five software vulnerabilities identified by the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA). These vulnerabilities, which have been actively exploited by the threat actor known as Flax Typhoon, span a decade of legacy software, including issues in ProFTPD, ONLYOFFICE Docs, and Apache Struts. The vulnerabilities carry high severity scores, with one reaching a CVSS of 10.0.