NSA FBI and CNMF Issue Joint Advisory on Chinese Hacking Group QTFY That Breached NASA Federal Reserve DOJ and Senate Networks

The NSA joined the FBI and Cyber National Mission Force on August 26 in a joint cybersecurity advisory on China-linked hacking group QTFY, warning that the actors developed malicious distributed platforms, including the "QScan" vulnerability-scanning tool and the "QTRouter" obfuscation network, to compromise military and critical-infrastructure networks 12. Separately, the Justice Department that same day unsealed court documents in the Southern District of California identifying the Federal Reserve, NASA, the Senate, and the DOJ itself among the victims of intrusions carried out with the QScan and QTRouter platforms, alongside the Energy Department, Health and Human Services, and the National Institutes of Health 3. The DOJ said QTFY operated on behalf of Nanjing Xinjiuwei Network Technology Co., a China-based firm, with paying customers including China's Ministry of State Security and the People's Liberation Army, and announced the court-ordered seizure of internet domains hard-coded into both malware platforms, rendering them inoperable 3. NSA, FBI, and CNMF trace QTFY's activity to 2018 and report prior targeting of the Defense Industrial Base, telecommunications, local government, and higher education sectors 12.