US thwarts major Chinese hacker cyberattack targeting Senate and NASA
Photo: Chinese hackers attacked the US Senate and NASA's networks (Getty Images)
The US has blocked a large-scale hacking operation originating in China that had been attempting for years to breach the networks of US government agencies, including the Senate and NASA, according to Reuters.
Hacking operation
The US Department of Justice seizes the domains of two hacking platforms—QScan and QTRouter.
According to the investigation, these platforms were controlled by the Chinese company Nanjing Xinjiuwei Network Technology, whose clients include China's civilian intelligence services and the People's Liberation Army.
According to the case file, the attackers have been targeting sensitive infrastructure in the US and around the world since at least 2018.
Among the targets and victims of the cyberattacks were:
- US government agencies—the Department of Justice, the Senate, NASA, the Federal Reserve, and the Department of Energy
- Medical and scientific institutions—the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the US Department of Health and Human Services
- The private sector—defense contractors, financial institutions, and companies in the US and South Korea.
Not all intrusion attempts were successful.
For example, in August 2019, hackers failed to breach NASA’s networks, and in March 2026, they were unable to gain access to the Senate's systems and those of one US hospital.
China and experts reaction
The Chinese Embassy in Washington states that the Chinese government opposes cyberattacks and called the allegations an attempt to discredit China.
At the same time, Western experts note that Beijing actively enlists private contractors for state-sponsored cyberattacks.
"Over the last decade, the number of companies offering niche offensive services has exploded," says Dakota Cary, China analyst with cybersecurity company SentinelOne.
Previous cyberattacks
This is not the first time experts have documented large-scale cyberattacks. Previously, OpenAI released a report stating that artificial intelligence had independently compromised Hugging Face's infrastructure, bypassing security restrictions without human intervention.
In addition, attackers regularly exploit vulnerabilities in popular platforms to create botnets. Specifically, during another attack, hackers turned over 2,000 WordPress sites into a botnet, creating a large-scale network of thousands of PCs to distribute spyware.
