US offers N15.7bn ($10m) reward for wanted Chinese hacker

The United States offered a $10 million (approximately N15.7 billion at exchange rate of N1577.3/$) reward on Tuesday for information leading to the arrest of a Chinese man, Guan Tianfeng, and his co-conspirators wanted for hacking computer firewalls.

Tianfeng, 30, is believed to be living in China’s Sichuan Province, according to the State Department.

An indictment charging Tianfeng with conspiracy to commit computer fraud and conspiracy to commit wire fraud was unsealed 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.

Some 81,000 firewall devices were simultaneously attacked worldwide in April 2020, the indictment said, to steal data, including usernames and passwords, while also attempting to infect the computers with ransomware.

More than 23,000 firewalls were in the US, of which 36 were protecting “critical infrastructure companies’ systems,” the Treasury said.

“The zero-day vulnerability Guan Tianfeng and his co-conspirators found and exploited affected firewalls owned by businesses across the United States.

“If Sophos had not rapidly identified the vulnerability and deployed a comprehensive response, the damage could have been far more severe,” FBI agent, Herbert Stapleton said.

According to the indictment, Sichuan Silence sold its services and the data it obtained through hacking to Chinese businesses and government entities, including the Ministry of Public Security.

A man who answered a call to a phone number registered with Sichuan Silence said the company “did not accept interviews” and declined to comment on the sanctions.

When asked by AFP, the man, who did not identify himself, also said Tianfeng was “uncontactable.”

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