U.S. Offers $10 Million Reward for Chinese Hacker Behind Global Firewall Attack

Guan Tianfeng and Sichuan Silence targeted tens of thousands of firewalls in a 2020 cyberattack, compromising critical infrastructure and risking lives.

The U.S. unsealed an indictment against Guan Tianfeng, a Chinese cybersecurity researcher, for exploiting a zero-day vulnerability in Sophos firewalls in 2020.
Approximately 81,000 firewalls worldwide, including over 23,000 in the U.S., were compromised, with 36 protecting critical infrastructure companies.
The malware deployed by Guan and his co-conspirators was designed to steal data and attempted to deploy ransomware that could have caused significant harm if not mitigated.
The Treasury Department sanctioned Guan and his employer, Sichuan Silence Information Technology, a Chengdu-based firm linked to Chinese government intelligence services.
The U.S. State Department is offering a $10 million reward for information leading to Guan's arrest, highlighting the severity of the threat posed by the attack.

U.S. Department of Justice

Al Jazeera

TechCrunch

United States Department of State

UPI

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