Doj Blames China For String Of Hacks Targeting Federal Agencies And Hospitals

Chinese hackers carried out a yearslong coordinated campaign to worm their way into federal networks — including those at the Departments of Energy and Health and Human Services, as well as the U.S. Senate, the Justice Department announced Wednesday.

The attempted breaches, which began in 2018, add to evidence of the Chinese government’s suspected large-scale cyber and espionage operations targeting U.S. networks, including recent hacks of telecommunications providers and military systems.

The Justice Department and the FBI on Wednesday filed an affidavit announcing the seizure of websites used by a Chinese state-sponsored group known as QTFY to attack networks at U.S. government agencies, hospitals, power companies and financial institutions.

Many of the cyberattacks the DOJ linked to this Chinese hacker group occurred several years ago, including an attempted hack of NASA servers in 2019 and a separate attack on an unidentified Ohio-based medical center in mid-2020, according to the affidavit.

Hackers also compromised networks in 2024 at three Department of Energy National Laboratories and Technology Centers, and at the National Institutes of Health. Other federal agencies targeted in recent years include the Justice Department, HHS and the Federal Reserve, the DOJ said.

U.S. Senate systems were also breached this year, though the affidavit did not provide additional details on the nature of the attack.

The affidavit largely avoided details on whether the attacks were successful or whether any sensitive information was stolen. The DOJ said the affidavit was being submitted solely to seize the hacking group's websites.

Spokespeople for the Justice Department, NIH, the Energy Department, NASA and the Senate Sergeant at Arms — which oversees Senate IT networks — did not respond to a request for comment on the breaches.

Separate spokespeople for HHS and for the Federal Reserve declined to comment, directing questions to the Justice Department.

A person with knowledge of the breach at the Federal Reserve, granted anonymity to discuss details of investigations not yet made public, told POLITICO that the incident occurred in 2019, was of “limited scope,” and the organization worked with the FBI to investigate the hack at that time.

Spokespeople for the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency — the nation’s cyber defense and incident response agency — did not respond to a request for comment on how the federal government is responding to these attacks.

Beijing has long been accused of masterminding attacks on U.S. infrastructure and agencies. In 2023, officials and industry experts said that the Chinese hacking group Volt Typhoon had carried out attacks against organizations on the U.S. mainland and at military bases in Guam since 2021, including communications, transportation and IT companies. Cybersecurity officials have described the effort as comparable to a “cyber invasion” by China.

In 2024, a China-linked hacking group dubbed Salt Typhoon was accused of breaching U.S. telecommunications systems and the mobile devices of several U.S. officials, including then-presidential candidate Donald Trump and his running mate, JD Vance. Chinese hackers also gained access to the emails of top Biden administration officials at the Commerce and State departments in 2023.

Chinese officials have repeatedly pushed back against allegations of state-run hacking operations targeting the U.S., and described reports of its involvement in the breach of Trump and Vance’s devices as “disinformation.”

Spokespeople for the Chinese Embassy in Washington did not respond to a request for comment on the Justice Department’s new allegations.

Chinese President Xi Jinping is scheduled to visit Washington next month, where cyberattacks against U.S. networks are likely to be brought up. Following a trip to China in May, Trump told reporters that he has discussed Chinese-linked cyberattacks on U.S. networks with Xi, and said that the U.S. is spying “like hell” on China in response.