US sanctions China cyber firm for potentially deadly ransomware attack

The sanctions effectively block any assets of the Sichuan Silence Information Technology Company and its employee Guan Tianfeng in the United States, and usually ban US banks, companies or individuals from doing business with them [File: Dado Ruvic/Reuters]

A Chinese cybersecurity company and one of its researchers have been sanctioned by the United States over a 2020 cyberattack that sought to exploit a computer software vulnerability in company firewalls, potentially resulting in deaths from system malfunctions, the US Treasury Department has announced.

Guan Tianfeng, an employee of Sichuan Silence Information Technology Company, deployed malicious software to 81,000 firewalls run by thousands of companies worldwide in April 2020, including 23,000 in the US, the Treasury Department said in a statement on Tuesday.