The FBI has taken down a network of proxy tools that Chinese hackers used to break into a run of US government systems, the Justice Department says.
According to the DOJ, the hacking campaign hit NASA, the Federal Reserve, the US Senate, and the Justice Department itself, along with other infrastructure targets. The proxies apparently let the attackers route their traffic through compromised systems, making the intrusions harder to trace back to China. The FBI's move disrupted those tools rather than announcing arrests, which is typical for these kinds of state-linked operations. The DOJ did not detail how long the campaign ran or how it was first detected.
What stands out is the breadth of targets in a single case: a space agency, a central bank, a legislative body, and the country's own top law-enforcement agency. That spread is wider than most disclosed Chinese hacking cases, which tend to concentrate on one sector at a time, such as telecoms or energy. It suggests either a long-running operation or several campaigns folded into one announcement.
Either way, taking down proxy infrastructure slows attackers down. It rarely stops them for good.