US sanctions Beijing-based cyber group for its alleged role in hacking incidents WSOC TV [Video]

WASHINGTON — (AP) — The U.S. Treasury on Friday sanctioned a Beijing-based cybersecurity company for its alleged role in multiple hacking incidents targeting critical U.S. infrastructure.

The Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control hit Integrity Technology Group, Inc. with sanctions Friday morning, for conducting multiple hacks against U.S. victims, including incidents attributed to Flax Typhoon, a Chinese state-sponsored campaign that targets U.S. critical infrastructure.

The sanctions come a few days after Treasury reported that Chinese hackers remotely accessed several U.S. Treasury Department workstations and unclassified documents in a major cybersecurity incident.

The Treasury Department said it learned of the problem on Dec. 8, when a third-party software service provider, BeyondTrust, flagged that hackers had stolen a key “used by the vendor to secure a cloud-based service used to remotely provide technical support” to workers.

Friday’s sanctions do not appear to be related to the Dec. 8 Treasury hack.

Treasury Acting Under Secretary Bradley Smith said the U.S. will disrupt cyber threats “as we continue …