Cyber Hacker's Day Job: Spying for China

Imagine finding out that the person trying to hack into your system is not just some unknown person, but works for a company linked to the government! That's what happened with Guan Tianfeng, a 30-year-old Chinese national. The U. S. says he worked with others to hack into firewalls made by U. K. company Sophos. They used a secret flaw in the firewall, making it easy to attack. They even tried to make it look like they were Sophos, tricking people into trusting them. When Sophos fixed the issue, the hackers changed their plan to use ransomware.

But they didn't stop there. Guan works for a Chinese company called Sichuan Silence, which does shady things like stealing data and suppressing public opinion. The U. S. government is now after Guan and his company, offering a big reward for any information about them. Cybersecurity competitions in China might be helping the government too, experts say. The Chinese government denies this, saying they just want to improve technology.

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