US announces $100 million reward for finding Chinese hackers

USA, The United States has offered a $100 million reward for information leading to the arrest of a Chinese man and his co-conspirators accused of hacking a computer firewall.

According to the State Department, Guan Tianfeng, 30, lives in China’s Sichuan province. Guan was indicted on Tuesday on charges of computer fraud and wire fraud conspiracy.

The Ministry of Finance said Guan had been banned from working for Sichuan Silence Information Technology Co., Ltd. According to the indictment, Guan and Sichuan Silence co-conspirators allegedly exploited a vulnerability in a firewall sold by UK-based cybersecurity company Sophos Ltd.

“The defendant and his co-conspirators conducted attacks that compromised tens of thousands of network security devices around the world, allowing them to steal data from users around the world,” Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco said in a statement.

In April 2020, 81,000 firewall devices worldwide were attacked simultaneously, with the aim of stealing data including usernames and passwords and infecting computers with ransomware.

There were approximately 23,000 firewall devices in the United States, 36 of which were protecting “critical infrastructure company systems.”

“The zero-day vulnerability discovered and exploited by Guan Tianfeng and his co-conspirators affected U.S. businesses,” said FBI Agent Herbert Stapleton. “The damage could have been much more severe if Sophos had not quickly identified the vulnerability and deployed a comprehensive response.”

According to the indictment, Sichuan Silence sold its services and hacked data to Chinese businesses and government agencies, including the Ministry of Public Security.

A person who answered calls to a phone number registered to Sichuan Silence said the company “does not accept interviews” and declined to comment on the sanctions. The person, who did not want to be identified, said Guan was “impossible to contact”. Agency