US sanctions China cyber firm for potentially deadly ransomware attack

Some firewalls targeted in the US were protecting critical infrastructure companies, the US Treasury Department says.

A Chinese cybersecurity company and one of its researchers have been sanctioned by the United States over a 2020 cyberattack that sought to exploit a computer software vulnerability in company firewalls, potentially resulting in deaths from system malfunctions, the US Treasury Department has announced.

Guan Tianfeng, an employee of Sichuan Silence Information Technology Company, deployed malicious software to 81,000 firewalls run by thousands of companies worldwide in April 2020, including 23,000 in the US, the Treasury Department said in a statement on Tuesday.

The US Department of Justice also unsealed an indictment on Guan on Tuesday for his role in the cyberattack. Additionally, the US Department of State is offering a $10m reward for information about Sichuan Silence or Guan.

Sichuan Silence is a cybersecurity government contractor located in the city of Chengdu in central China whose main clients are Chinese government intelligence services, the Treasury Department said.

“Sichuan Silence provides these clients with computer network exploitation, email monitoring, brute-force password cracking, and public sentiment suppression products and services,” it added.