United States offers $10 million reward for wanted notorious hacker
United States offers $10 million reward for wanted notorious hacker arrest
The United States, on Tuesday, offered a $10 million reward for information leading to the arrest of a Chinese man, Guan Tianfeng and co-conspirators wanted for hacking computer firewalls.
According to the State Department, Tianfeng, 30, is believed to live in China’s Sichuan Province.
An indictment charging Guan with conspiracy to commit computer fraud and conspiracy to commit wire fraud was unsealed on Tuesday.
The Treasury Department said it had imposed sanctions on the company Guan worked for, Sichuan Silence Information Technology Co Ltd.
According to the indictment, Guan and co-conspirators at Sichuan Silence allegedly took advantage of a vulnerability in firewalls sold by UK-based cybersecurity company Sophos Ltd.
“The defendant and his co-conspirators exploited a vulnerability in tens of thousands of network security devices, infecting them with malware designed to steal information from victims around the world,” Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco said in a statement.
Some 81,000 firewall devices were simultaneously attacked worldwide in April 2020, the indictment said, to steal data, including usernames and passwords, while also attempting to infect the computers with ransomware.
More than 23,000 firewalls were in the United States, of which 36 were protecting “critical infrastructure companies’ systems,” the Treasury said.
“The zero-day vulnerability Guan Tianfeng and his co-conspirators found and exploited affected firewalls owned by businesses across the United States.
“If Sophos had not rapidly identified the vulnerability and deployed a comprehensive response, the damage could have been far more severe,” ” FBI agent Herbert Stapleton said.
