Top FBI official says Chinese reliance on domestic firms for hacking is a weakness

China’s reliance on domestic technology companies to carry out large-scale hacking operations—as highlighted by the U.S. government and its allies this week—is a weakness that poses risks for Beijing, a top FBI official told CyberScoop.

Cyber agencies from around the world published an alert Wednesday about what officials have described as an indiscriminate cyberespionage campaign from Chinese Communist Party-backed hackers like the group known as Salt Typhoon. The alert also named three Chinese companies that it says have assisted that hacking.

“These enabling companies, they failed,” Jason Bilnoski, deputy assistant director in the FBI’s cyber division, told CyberScoop. “This investigation, and that of our partners, are exposing that the use of these enabling companies by the CCP is a failure.”

Read more at CyberScoop