Treasury Sanctions Cybersecurity Company Involved in Compromise of Firewall Products and Attempted Ransomware Attacks

WASHINGTON — Today, the Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) is sanctioning cybersecurity company Sichuan Silence Information Technology Company, Limited (Sichuan Silence), and one of its employees,** Guan Tianfeng** (Guan), both based in People’s Republic of China (PRC), for their roles in the April 2020 compromise of tens of thousands of firewalls worldwide. Many of the victims were U.S. critical infrastructure companies.Malicious cyber actors, including those operating in China, continue to be one of the greatest and most persistent threats to U.S. national security, as highlighted in the 2024 Annual Threat Assessment released by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.“Today’s action underscores our commitment to exposing these malicious cyber activities—many of which pose significant risk to our communities and our citizens—and to holding the actors behind them accountable for their schemes,” said Acting Under Secretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence Bradley T. Smith.