FBI Confirms $10 Million Chinese Hacker Bounty
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The U.S. is no stranger to hack attacks that have a Chinese affiliation, from the U.S. Treasury breach, an attack that led the FBI to remotely delete malware from thousands of computers belonging to American citizens, and most recently the nation state sponsored Ghost ransomware attacks leading to yet another FBI security warning as American hospitals and factories were targeted. Now, the FBI has upped the ante as it confirmed a $10 million bounty on the heads of members of the notorious Chinese Salt Typhoon hacking group.
The Chinese Salt Typhoon cyber-espionage group has risen to the top of the state-sponsored hacking pile courtesy of a number of high-profile attacks over the last six months or so. From the hacking of presidential candidate campaign iPhones, the exposure of critical vulnerabilities within the U.S. telecommunications infrastructure, and more.
Salt Typhoon is known to be an advanced persistent hacking group, affiliated with the Ministry of State Security in China, conducting cyber espionage campaigns against U.S. targets. Salt Typhoon also operates under a number of other guises, including FamousSparrow, Ghost Emperor and UNC2286
Now the Federal Bureau of Investigation has confirmed it is offering a $10 million bounty for 'information about foreign government-linked individuals participating in certain malicious cyber activities against U.S. critical infrastructure in violation of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act.' The FBI bounty is mentioned in a new security advisory that asks members of the public to report any information that they have about Salt Typhoon activity, but 'especially information about specific individuals behind the campaign.' For more information about how to qualify for the $10 million bounty, readers are advised to refer to the U.S. Department of State's national security rewards program, Rewards for Justice.
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