Australia: Issued FBI, CNMF, NSA Joint Advisory on People's Republic of China botnet operations

On 18 September 2024, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Cyber National Mission Force (CNMF), and National Security Agency (NSA) issued a Joint Advisory identifying cyber actors linked to the People's Republic of China (PRC) that have compromised thousands of internet-connected devices, such as routers, firewalls, network-attached storage (NAS), and IoT devices, to create a botnet for malicious activities. According to the Joint Advisory, Integrity Technology Group, a PRC-based company, has managed this botnet since mid-2021, with over 260'000 devices compromised as of June 2024. The Joint Advisory recommends a number of mitigating actions, including disabling unused services and parts, implementing network segmentation, and monitoring high network traffic volume.