TOKYO – The United States National Security Agency, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Japanese police jointly warned multinational companies of China-linked hacker group BlackTech in a cyber-security advisory late on Wednesday.

The joint advisory, which also came from the US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency and its Japanese counterpart, urged firms to review Internet routers at their subsidiaries to minimise the risk of potential attack from the group.

“BlackTech has demonstrated capabilities in modifying router firmware without detection and exploiting routers’ domain-trust relationships to pivot from international subsidiaries to headquarters in Japan and the United States, which are the primary targets,” the statement said.

BlackTech has been engaging in cyber attacks on governments and tech-sector companies in the United States and East Asia since around 2010, Japan’s National Police Agency said in a separate statement.

In 2020, Taiwan’s security authority reported cyber attacks on some 6,000 government officials’ e-mail accounts by BlackTech and another hacking group, Taidoor, saying both were likely backed by the Communist Party of China.

Amid heightening US-China tensions over issues including Taiwan, US security officials are raising the tone of their warnings against China’s cyber-attack capabilities.

FBI director Chris Wray earlier in September said China “has a bigger hacking programme than every other major nation combined”.

In May, the cyber-security authorities of Australia, Canada, New Zealand and Britain joined US agencies in issuing an advisory on China’s “state-sponsored cyber actor”.

Japan, a key US ally in East Asia along with South Korea, was allegedly attacked by Chinese military hackers who gained access to its classified defence networks in 2020, The Washington Post said in August.

The Pentagon said it was confident about sharing intelligence with Japan despite the report. REUTERS