The US Department of Justice has revised its earlier claims about a Chinese cyber espionage campaign, saying several federal agencies were targeted by suspected Chinese hackers, but not all were successfully breached.
In a corrected statement issued on Friday, the Justice Department said the US Senate, the Federal Reserve, NASA, and several other government agencies were among the targets of a hacking group known as QTFY, which US authorities allege is backed by the Chinese government.
The revised statement replaced an earlier version released on Aug. 26, which described all of the organizations as victims of the cyber campaign. The department said the previous wording was inaccurate because court documents show that while all of the institutions were targeted, only some experienced confirmed network intrusions.
According to an FBI affidavit, the cyber campaign dates back to at least 2018 and targeted multiple US federal agencies, including NASA, the Federal Reserve, the Department of Energy, the Department of Justice, the Department of Health and Human Services, the National Institutes of Health, and the US Senate.
The affidavit states that an attempted intrusion into NASA was unsuccessful because the targeted systems had received a software update that blocked the attack.
US investigators also allege that successful intrusions occurred in September 2024 at three Department of Energy national laboratories, the National Institutes of Health, an agency affiliated with the Department of Health and Human Services, and a US security equipment manufacturer.
Separately, a joint cybersecurity advisory issued by the FBI, the National Security Agency (NSA) and US Cyber Command said the group stole data from defense contractors, financial institutions and universities in May 2024. The advisory also described unsuccessful attempts to access the US Senate’s network and a hospital in March 2026.
The Justice Department said the correction narrows the scope of confirmed breaches but does not change its allegations that QTFY conducted a long-running cyber espionage campaign against sensitive US government and private-sector targets.
The Chinese Embassy in Washington had not responded to requests for comment at the time of publication. Beijing has previously rejected similar US allegations, describing them as attempts to “smear China.”
