In this May 13, 2017 image, a man holds a laptop while cyber code is projected onto him. Portal/Kacper Pempel/Illustration/File Photo acquire license rights
TOKYO, Sept 28 (Portal) – The U.S. National Security Agency, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Japanese police jointly warned multinational companies about the China-linked hacking group BlackTech in a cybersecurity alert late on Wednesday.
The joint advisory, which also came from the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency and its Japanese counterpart, urged companies to check the Internet routers at their subsidiaries to minimize the risk of potential attacks from the group.
“BlackTech has demonstrated the ability to modify router firmware undetected and exploit routers’ domain trust relationships to move from international subsidiaries to headquarters in Japan and the United States, which are the primary targets,” it said in the statement.
BlackTech has been involved in cyberattacks on governments and technology sector companies in the United States and East Asia since around 2010, Japan’s National Police Agency said in a separate statement.
In 2020, Taiwan’s self-governing security agency reported cyberattacks on the email accounts of about 6,000 government officials by Blacktech and another hacking group Taidoor, saying both were likely backed by the Chinese Communist Party.
With tensions rising between the U.S. and China over issues such as Taiwan, U.S. security officials are stepping up their warnings about China’s cyberattack capabilities. FBI Director Chris Wray said earlier this month that China had “a larger hacking program than all other major nations combined.”
In May, the cybersecurity authorities of Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the United Kingdom, along with U.S. authorities, issued an advisory on China as a “state-sponsored cyber actor.”
Japan, a key U.S. ally in East Asia alongside South Korea, was reportedly attacked by Chinese military hackers who gained access to its secret defense networks in 2020, The Washington Post reported last month. The Pentagon said it was confident it would pass information to Japan despite the report.
Reporting by Kantaro Komiya; Edited by Michael Perry
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