Two Chinese tech companies have been sanctioned in the UK after launching “reckless and indiscriminate cyber-attacks” around the world, including against British IT networks.

Announcing the sanctions, the Foreign Office (FO) said that Sichuan Anxun Information Technology Co. Ltd, otherwise known as i-Soon, targeted more than eighty foreign governments and private businesses, and provided support for others planning to carry out malicious cyber activity.

The government said that i-Soon had engaged in “researching, exploiting and sharing vulnerabilities” targeting UK public sector and private industry IT networks, aiming to undermine the success and security of British organisations.

Elsewhere, i-Soon has been accused of targeting American systems, including those of the federal government, leading the US State Department to offer a reward of up to $10 million for information on the location of ten individuals associated with the firm.

Meanwhile, Integrity Technology Group Incorporated (Integrity Tech) is also facing sanctions in the UK, with the Beijing-based firm accused of operating a covert cyber network and providing support for attacks, including against British public sector IT systems.

The FO’s notice claims that Integrity Tech managed a botnet of over 260,000 compromised devices worldwide, a network that allowed malicious actors unauthorised access to the data and IT environments of UK public sector organisations.   

Freezing the assets of both firms, the Foreign Office said that i-Soon and Integrity Tech are prominent examples of the threat posed by China’s cyber industry, which includes information security companies, data brokers that collect and sell personal information, and ‘hackers for hire’.

The government claims that some of these companies are known to provide cyber services to Chinese intelligence services, with the National Cyber Security Centre “almost certain” that this complex ecosystem of private sector firms supports China’s state-backed cyber operations.

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“As the Prime Minister set out recently in a speech at the Guildhall, protecting our security is non-negotiable and the first duty of the government. The UK recognises that China poses a series of threats to UK national security,” said the Foreign Office in announcing the sanctions.  

“These cyber-attacks from unrestrained actors in China go against agreed UN cyber principles. The measures announced today are designed to reduce the risk of such threats to the UK’s security and broader international stability.”

The measures follow the exposure of three China-based companies linked to the cyber campaign known as SALT TYPHOON in August, when the UK and international partners issued a security advisory warning that stolen data would provide Chinese intelligence services the capability to identify and track targets’ communications and movements worldwide.