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US Seizes Domains Linked to Chinese Group QTFY; Agencies Described as Targets

US authorities seized internet domains linked to Chinese hacking platforms QScan and QTRouter, operated by a group called QTFY and backed by Chinese state entities. The Justice Department initially listed several agencies as victims but later clarified they were among the targets, not necessarily breached.

By Tertius News AI Desk 4 outlets · 4 distinct · 4 articles Version 2 Coverage Aug 26–28, 2026 Published 1h ago

US Seizes Domains Tied to Chinese-Linked Hacking Platforms

US authorities announced Wednesday the seizure of two internet domains used by hacking platforms that allegedly targeted sensitive US government networks, including those of the Federal Reserve, the US Senate, NASA, and the Department of Justice. The operation, detailed by the Justice Department and the FBI, involved platforms known as QScan and QTRouter, which court documents say were created and operated by a Chinese state-sponsored group named QTFY.

The seized domains were hard-coded into both QScan and QTRouter malware, and the seizures made the platforms inoperable, the Justice Department said. According to an affidavit, the infrastructure had been used to compromise critical infrastructure and other sensitive networks in the US and elsewhere since at least 2018.

QTFY was employed by Nanjing Xinjiuwei Network Technology Co., a China-based company, and its paying customers included China's Ministry of State Security and the People's Liberation Army, the Justice Department stated. The platforms were reportedly used to break into internet-connected devices and hide the source of attacks.

Details of the Operation and Targets

The Justice Department's announcement said QScan was used to find and infect thousands of internet-connected devices, including routers and other network equipment, which were then incorporated into a network via QTRouter. Court filings also listed other targeted networks, including those operated by hospitals, telecommunications providers, power companies, financial institutions, and defense contractors.

Initially, the Justice Department said several federal agencies were victims of computer intrusions, naming the Federal Reserve, the US Senate, NASA, the Department of Justice, the Energy Department, the Health and Human Services Department, and the National Institutes of Health. Court documents indicated that hackers had unsuccessfully attempted to access NASA networks in August 2019 and, in September 2024, successfully breached networks at three Department of Energy laboratories, NIH, HHS, and a US security-device manufacturer.

However, in a later edited statement, the Justice Department described the US Senate, the Federal Reserve, NASA, and others as "among the targets of QTFY," rather than victims. A note at the bottom of the edited statement said, "Edits have been made to ensure this press release accurately reflects the government's allegations in the affidavit in support of the domain seizures." Reuters reported that it could not immediately establish which specific agencies the government now believed had been targeted and which had been breached, and that messages seeking clarification from the Justice Department, the FBI, and CISA were not immediately returned.

Official Statements and Responses

US Attorney General Todd Blanche, in a statement Wednesday, said, "State-sponsored malicious hackers preying on America's critical infrastructure will be stopped and prosecuted. We are here to ensure security for the American people and will use every tool we have to keep that promise." He also said, "Federal law enforcement investigated and disabled the PRC's malicious software, the latest in a series of technical operations to dismantle indiscriminate hacking activities sponsored by the People's Republic of China."

The Chinese embassy in Washington responded, stating that the Chinese government opposes and combats all forms of cyberattacks. "We urge the US side to stop using cybersecurity issues to smear or discredit China," a spokesman said, according to the South China Morning Post.

Neither the Chinese embassy in Washington nor Nanjing Xinjiuwei responded to requests for comment by the Reuters news agency, as reported by Al Jazeera.

The operation is part of a broader series of court-authorized actions targeting what Attorney General Blanche described as "indiscriminate hacking activities" sponsored by China. The FBI's Cyber Division, federal prosecutors in California, and the San Diego field office led the investigation, according to Al Jazeera.

Perspectives

US Justice Department

The Justice Department asserts that Chinese state-sponsored hackers, operating via QTFY and Nanjing Xinjiuwei, targeted US critical infrastructure and federal agencies, and that the domain seizures disabled the malware.

Chinese Embassy in Washington

The Chinese embassy denies state involvement in cyberattacks, stating that China opposes and combats all forms of cyberattacks and urging the US to stop using cybersecurity issues to smear or discredit China.

How each outlet told it

A framing line is our reading of that outlet's own text — an interpretation, not a quotation and not a fact we assert. Check it against what the outlet published.

Al Jazeera as of Aug 26, 2026, 9:46 PM UTC

Framing: Our reading neutral

Facts Included:

US authorities seized two domains allegedly used to target sensitive government networks since 2018.
The United States said it has disrupted a China-affiliated hacking operation that targeted sensitive US government bodies, including the US Department of Justice, NASA, the Federal Reserve, and the US Senate.
The Justice Department’s announcement, released on Wednesday, said the operation took down two hacking platforms, QScan and QTRouter, that were used to break into internet-connected devices and hide the source of attacks.
The infrastructure had been used to compromise critical infrastructure and other sensitive networks in the US and elsewhere since at least 2018, according to an affidavit.
Hackers had unsuccessfully attempted to access NASA networks in August 2019.
In September 2024, they successfully breached networks at three Department of Energy laboratories, NIH, HHS, and a US security-device manufacturer, according to court documents.
The Federal Reserve, US Senate, and four unnamed companies in the US and South Korea were also identified as targets.
The Justice Department said the platforms were run by a China-based firm, the Nanjing Xinjiuwei Network Technology Company, whose clients it said included China’s civilian intelligence agency, the Ministry of State Security, and its military, the People’s Liberation Army.
Neither the Chinese embassy in Washington nor Nanjing Xinjiuwei responded to comment by the Reuters news agency.
The operation is part of a broader series of court-authorised actions targeting what Attorney General Todd Blanche described as “indiscriminate hacking activities” sponsored by China.
The FBI’s Cyber Division, federal prosecutors in California, and the San Diego field office led this investigation.
In March, the FBI notified the US Congress that hackers had penetrated certain agency networks related to people under FBI investigation, with public reporting later attributing the compromise to China.
Chinese-linked hackers have also been tied to a compromise of certain US House of Representatives committee networks, as well as multiple major telecommunications companies in recent years.

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CNBC as of Aug 26, 2026, 4:30 PM UTC

Framing: Our reading Neutral and factual, directly reporting official statements and court documents without emotional commentary.

Facts Included:

The Federal Reserve, the U.S. Senate, the Department of Justice, NASA and other federal agencies were victims of computer intrusions by a Chinese state-sponsored hacking group, the DOJ said Wednesday morning.
The hacking platforms, known as "QScan" and "QTRouter," were "used to target U.S. critical infrastructure and other sensitive networks," the DOJ said in a statement.
Other targeted networks include those operated by hospitals, telecommunications providers, power companies, financial institutions, and defense contractors, a court filing said.
Other federal agencies that were victims included the Energy Department, the Health and Human Services Department and the National Institutes of Health, according to the DOJ.
A Chinese state-sponsored group known as "QTFY" created and operated the hacking platforms, according to court documents unsealed in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California.
QTFY was employed by Nanjing Xinjiuwei Network Technology Co., a China-based company, according to filings.
QTFY's paying customers include the People's Republic of China's Ministry of State Security and the People's Liberation Army, the DOJ said.
The seized internet domains were hard-coded into both the QScan and QTRouter malware, and the seizures made the malware inoperable, according to the DOJ.
Attorney General Todd Blanche, in a statement Wednesday, said: "State-sponsored malicious hackers preying on America's critical infrastructure will be stopped and prosecuted. We are here to ensure security for the American people and will use every tool we have to keep that promise."
Blanche also said: "Federal law enforcement investigated and disabled the PRC's malicious software, the latest in a series of technical operations to dismantle indiscriminate hacking activities sponsored by the People's Republic of China."
The announcement comes more than a month after John Harold Rogers, a former senior advisor to the Federal Reserve Board of Governors, was sentenced to 38 months in prison for making false statements to federal investigators about sharing restricted information about monetary policy and the Federal Open Market Committee with Chinese intelligence operatives.
Rogers was acquitted at trial of the more serious charge of conspiracy to commit economic espionage.

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Jerusalem Post as of Aug 28, 2026, 9:45 PM UTC

Framing: Our reading measured

Facts Included:

the Justice Department said Friday that the US Senate, the Federal Reserve, NASA, and others were 'among the targets of QTFY,' a Chinese spy platform
officials called out on Wednesday during an internet domain seizure operation
A previous version of the statement said the government agencies had been among the hackers' victims.
A note left at the bottom of the newly edited statement said that 'Edits have been made to ensure this press release accurately reflects the government’s allegations in the affidavit in support of the domain seizures.'
Reuters could not immediately establish which specific agencies the government now believed had been targeted and which ones had been breached.
Messages seeking clarification from the Justice Department, the FBI, and CISA were not immediately returned on Friday.

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South China Morning Post as of Aug 26, 2026, 10:15 PM UTC

Framing: Our reading neutral

Facts Included:

The Justice Department and the FBI said on Wednesday that they seized two Chinese state-sponsored online platforms that targeted US critical infrastructure and other critical networks, including Nasa, the Federal Reserve and the US Senate.
According to court documents, the seizures involved a group known as 'QTFY', operated by China-based Nanjing Xinjiuwei Network Technology Co, which created and ran the QScan and QTRouter sites.
US Attorney General Todd Blanche said in a statement: 'State-sponsored malicious hackers preying on America's critical infrastructure will be stopped and prosecuted.'
The Chinese embassy in Washington said the Chinese government opposes and combats all forms of cyberattacks. 'We urge the US side to stop using cybersecurity issues to smear or discredit China,' the spokesman said.
Other reported victims of the QTFY hacking operations included the Department of Energy, Department of Justice, Department of Health and Human Services and the National Institutes of Health as well as hospitals, telecommunications providers, power companies, financial institutions and defence contractors.

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What was claimed, and who backed it

AI-extracted; can misattribute a claim — see Methodology.

Each row is one claim, attributed to the outlet whose wording states it most clearly. Confidence rates how directly the source text states the claim — explicit and unhedged rates high; hedged, pieced-together, or internally inconsistent statements rate lower. It does not measure whether the claim is true. Status counts the distinct outlets we found asserting it — so a single-source claim can still show high confidence, and a multi-source claim can show medium. Every one of those outlets is named beside the status, so you can check the count against the list. For claims extracted before we began storing that list, the row says so: it names the outlet the claim is quoted from and states that we have not recorded which outlets backed it. Outlets wrote at different times, so a figure that evolves — a casualty count, for example — can legitimately differ between rows; check the "as of" time next to each claim's source.

Claim	Confidence	Status
ClaimIn a later edited statement, the Justice Department said the US Senate, the Federal Reserve, NASA and others were 'among the targets of QTFY', not victims, adding a note that the edit was made to accurately reflect the government's allegations in the affidavit.	ConfidenceHigh	StatusSingle-source via Jerusalem Post as of Aug 28, 2026, 9:45 PM UTC
ClaimThe Justice Department initially said the federal agencies had been victims of the hackers but later edited the statement to say they were among the targets.	ConfidenceHigh	StatusSingle-source via Jerusalem Post as of Aug 28, 2026, 9:45 PM UTC

Transparency & Audit Trail

4 outlets · 4 distinct · 4 articles consulted: Al Jazeera, CNBC, Jerusalem Post, South China Morning Post 2 claims extracted Version 2 Written 2026-08-28