People’s Republic of China-Linked Actors Compromise Routers and IoT Devices for Botnet Operations

Summary

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Cyber National Mission Force (CNMF), and National Security Agency (NSA) assess that People’s Republic of China (PRC)-linked cyber actors have compromised thousands of Internet-connected devices, including small office/home office (SOHO) routers, firewalls, network-attached storage (NAS) and Internet of Things (IoT) devices with the goal of creating a network of compromised nodes (a “botnet”) positioned for malicious activity. The actors may then use the botnet as a proxy to conceal their identities while deploying distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks or compromising targeted U.S. networks.

Integrity Technology Group (Integrity Tech), a PRC-based company, has controlled and managed a botnet active since mid-2021. The botnet has regularly maintained between tens to hundreds of thousands of compromised devices. As of June 2024, the botnet consisted of over 260,000 devices. Victim devices which are part of the botnet have been observed in North America, South America, Europe, Africa, Southeast Asia and Australia.

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