Watch onWASHINGTON - The U.S. on Monday imposed sanctions on a China-based firm it said was a Ministry of State Security front company, accusing it of serving as a cover for multiple malicious cyber operations and targeting U.S. critical infrastructure.
Treasury said APT31 is a collection of Chinese intelligence officers working for the Hubei branch of China's Ministry of State Security who carry out cyberespionage campaigns on behalf of the state. Those same officers established a company, Wuhan Xiaoruizhi Science and Technology, to use as a front to carry out those campaigns, the Treasury said.
Wuhan Xiaoruizhi Science and Technology's activity resulted in the surveillance of U.S. and foreign politicians, foreign policy experts, academics, journalists, pro-democracy activists and others, the Treasury said, adding that in 2018 employees of the company carried out an APT31 malicious cyber operation on a Texas-based energy company.