The seizure of the tools, announced on Thursday by the FBI and Justice Department, represents the latest law enforcement effort in recent years to go after a broad-based hacking campaign known to the private sector as Flax Typhoon.
The tools at issue, called Microscan and FishHub, were used by the hackers to scan, phish and hack targets that included US and foreign critical infrastructure, officials said.
Microscan was used to target, among other entities, an unnamed power company in the US, Japanese and Polish airports, Taiwanese universities, a multinational, non-governmental organisation and Taiwanese critical infrastructure companies.
FishHub facilitated phishing activity that gave hackers remote access to victim networks, the FBI said.
The latest operation has rendered the tools inoperable in what FBI and Justice Department officials said was a blow to the hacking operation.
"We aim to remove the capability from the threat actors. We target their infrastructure, their money, and their tools," FBI Cyber Division Deputy Assistant Director Jason Bilnoski told The Associated Press.
Bilnoski described the hacking operation "indiscriminate and reckless."
The tools were operated by a Chinese-based information security company called Integrity Technology Group, which the FBI says has contracts with the Chinese government. The company is regarded by the FBI as the true identity of Flax Typhoon.
In September 2024, the FBI announced that it had disrupted a massive botnet associated with Flax Typhoon that installed malicious software on more than 200,000 consumer devices, including cameras, video recorders and home and office routers, to create a massive botnet.
The botnet, or network of infected computers, was used to facilitate cyber crimes, such as the theft of sensitive information from victims' networks.
FBI San Diego Supervisory Special Agent Brett Lally said the department would continue to monitor for ways that the company might rebuild its infrastructure.
"It'll be interesting to see what this round of disruption actions have in terms of their ability to operate as a company in China," Lally said.
