FBI Disrupts Chinese Proxy Tools Used in Mass Hacking of US Agencies and Infrastructure | WIRED                                          (index.html)  (https://www.wired.com/feed/rss)  (https://media.wired.com/photos/6a8f11191780b42ea223901b/3:2/w_2560,c_limit/FBIChinaHack.jpg)  (https://media.wired.com/photos/6a8f11191780b42ea223901b/3:4/w_1024,c_limit/FBIChinaHack.jpg)  (../../verso/static/wired-us/assets/favicon.ico)  (../../verso/static/wired-us/assets/favicon.ico)  (../../verso/static/wired-us/assets/favicon.ico)  (../../verso/static/wired-us/assets/favicon.ico)  (https://securepubads.g.doubleclick.net)  (https://ads-static.conde.digital)    (Google Tag Manager)          (index.html#main-content) Skip to main content            Menu      (https://www.wired.com/) WIRED          (https://www.wired.com/category/security/) SECURITY    (https://www.wired.com/category/politics/) POLITICS    (https://www.wired.com/category/big-story/) THE BIG STORY    (https://www.wired.com/category/business/) BUSINESS    (https://www.wired.com/category/science/) SCIENCE    (https://www.wired.com/category/culture/) CULTURE    (https://www.wired.com/category/gear/) REVIEWS      Menu      (https://www.wired.com/) WIRED            Account           Account       (https://www.wired.com/newsletter?sourceCode=hamburgernav) Newsletters                         (https://www.wired.com/category/security/) Security    (https://www.wired.com/category/politics/) Politics    (https://www.wired.com/category/big-story/) The Big Story    (https://www.wired.com/category/business/) Business    (https://www.wired.com/category/science/) Science    (https://www.wired.com/category/culture/) Culture    (https://www.wired.com/category/gear/) Reviews  Chevron      More  Expand          (https://www.wired.com/the-big-interview/) The Big Interview   (https://www.wired.com/magazine/) Magazine   (https://www.wired.com/tag/wired-events/) Events   (https://www.wired.com/collection/wiredinsider/) WIRED Insider   (https://www.wired.com/tag/wired-consulting/) WIRED Consulting        (https://www.wired.com/newsletter?sourceCode=hamburgernav) Newsletters    (https://www.wired.com/podcasts/) Podcasts    (https://www.wired.com/video/) Video    (https://www.wired.com/livestreams) Livestreams    (https://shop.wired.com/) Merch     (https://www.wired.com/search/) Search    Search                                      (https://www.wired.com/author/andy-greenberg/) Andy Greenberg      (https://www.wired.com/category/security) Security   Aug 26, 2026 1:57 PM  FBI Disrupts Chinese Proxy Tools Used in Mass Hacking of US Agencies and Infrastructure China’s hacking campaign targeted NASA, the Federal Reserve, the US Senate, the Justice Department, and more, according to the DOJ.      (Image may contain Urban City Metropolis Adult Person and Silhouette)        Photo-Illustration: Wired Staff; Getty Images       Comment    Loader          Save Story    Save this story   Comment    Loader           Save Story    Save this story        For years, China's military and intelligence agencies, which (https://www.wired.com/story/china-honkers-elite-cyber-spies/) carry out hacking campaigns against (https://www.wired.com/story/chinas-salt-typhoon-spies-are-still-hacking-telecoms-now-by-exploiting-cisco-routers/) targets around the globe , have grown increasingly reliant on a vast web of proxy devices that enable and obfuscate their targeting. Now the FBI has named and disrupted one key network of those proxies—and in doing so, revealed just how extensively the hackers who used it reached into American government institutions and US critical infrastructure. On Wednesday, the Department of Justice announced the takedown of two tools, known as QTRouter and QScan, used by a Chinese state-sponsored hacking group the DOJ identified as QTFY, which is allegedly part of a Chinese government contractor called Nanjing Xinjiuwei Network Technology Company. According to prosecutors and an FBI affidavit used to seize domains that those tools relied on, the company gave its customers access to botnets of hacked internet-of-things (IoT) devices and co-opted commercial proxy services. The company's customers—allegedly including the Ministry of State Security and the People's Liberation Army—then used those proxy services as relay points to carry out hacking campaigns stretching back as early as 2018, according to the US government.   The DOJ says the hackers targeted a staggering list of US victim agencies, including attempted hacks of the US Senate and the Department of Health and Human Services, and successful breaches of the Federal Reserve, the Department of Energy, the National Institute of Health, and the DOJ itself.  Nanjing Xinjiuwei Network Technology Company could not be immediately reached for comment. The FBI's affidavit goes on to list types of US infrastructure and industries targeted via the proxy networks, too, including power companies, telecommunications providers, hospitals, financial institutions, and defense contractors—though it does not confirm which of the targeted entities were successfully breached or to what degree.   “The scale is really giant,” says Damon Rouse, a threat intelligence researcher at Lumen Technology's Black Lotus Labs, which worked with the FBI and DOJ on the takedown operation. In a blog post about the operation, Black Lotus Labs describes the Nanjing-based company as a kind of “quartermaster” for China's hacking operations, one of several private contractors that increasingly provide key tools and infrastructure to China's state-sponsored hackers.    “This is a very long-lasting campaign,” Rouse says, “and this company and these people involved in it have very close ties to the highest levels of the People's Liberation Army.”   QScan, according to Lumen and the FBI, was designed to scan for vulnerabilities in IoT devices that could be hacked and added to botnets of infected devices that served as proxies. The company's QTRouter service allegedly managed customers’ access to that botnet network, as well as a network of commercial proxies known as virtual private servers that could simply be rented and used in hacking campaigns. Over the past year, Rouse notes, the group had transitioned to hijacking virtual private network (VPN) services typically used by Chinese citizens to route around (https://www.wired.com/story/geedge-networks-mass-censorship-leak/) China's Great Firewall censorship system . Proxying Chinese hacking operations through those VPNs, Rouse says, created a layer of obfuscation that mixed malicious traffic with the benign traffic of Chinese users seeking to access the open internet. “It made it difficult for us to see the bad, state-sponsored traffic because there was so much typical user VPN traffic in the nodes they were co-opting,” Rouse says. The FBI and Justice Department say they've now disrupted the group's proxy infrastructure by seizing key domains hardcoded into QScan and QTRouter. Lumen, which serves as an internet backbone provider, says it also “null-routed” certain domains, rendering them inoperable—including the more recent system of co-opting censorship-bypassing VPNs. “State-sponsored malicious hackers preying on America’s critical infrastructure will be stopped and prosecuted,” US attorney general Todd Blanche wrote in a statement, though the DOJ's announcement didn't appear to include charges against any individuals. “We are here to ensure security for the American people and will use every tool we have to keep that promise.”      Exactly what the QTFY hackers or the group's clients within the Chinese government sought to accomplish with its US infrastructure hacking is far from clear. Rouse says that the hacking campaigns don't appear to overlap with (https://www.wired.com/story/what-happens-if-china-hacks-the-us-water-supply-war-game-volt-typhoon/) China's Volt Typhoon hacking campaign , which has sought to gain the capability to disrupt US power, water, and other military and civilian infrastructure. Instead, he says, the years-long hacking operations appeared—at least within Lumen's visibility—to be focused on more traditional espionage. “It was pretty much as broad as you can get, mapping back to what Chinese cyber operations are tasked with in terms of information collection,” Rouse says. The disruption of the QTFY proxy network will create a setback for those hacking campaigns and some embarrassment and customer relations problems for the Nanjing Xinjiuwei Network Technology Company, Rouse says. But given the hackers’ flexibility in shifting their methods over the years to find new ways to relay and disguise malicious traffic, he has no doubt that they will adapt and return. “I think this will have a direct effect on the company and its perception in China. This is an egg-on-the-face moment for them,” Rouse says. “I think we can also safely assume they'll pivot and stand up new infrastructure.” Updated 8/27/2026 at 5:40 pm EDT: While the DOJ described the list of targeted US government bodies as “victims,” a Joint Cybersecurity Advisory explains that the attacks against the US Senate and Department of Health and Human Services were unsuccessful. WIRED has updated the story to reflect these details.                         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