CISA Releases Advisory Concerning Chinese-Backed Threat Actor

On September 27, 2023, The U.S. National Security Agency (NSA), the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), the Japanese National Police Agency (NPA), and the Japanese National Center of Incident Readiness and Strategy for Cybersecurity (NISC) released a joint cybersecurity advisory (CSA) concerning the recent activity of a threat actor, known as BlackTech, that has been linked to the People's Republic of China (PRC). The CSA states that Blacktech is using a technique—manipulating router firmware without detection—to target a wide variety of entities including in government, industrial, technology, media, and telecommunications sectors. This includes multiple entities that support the Japanese and United States militaries.