US DOJ Seizes Chinese Botnet Domains Used in Hacking NASA and Senate Networks

The U.S. Department of Justice, working alongside federal law enforcement agencies, has executed court-authorized domain seizures that successfully rendered inoperable a massive state-sponsored Chinese botnet. The compromised network of thousands of infected routers and IoT devices had been utilized to target NASA, the U.S. Department of Justice, and the Senate.

By seizing the core command-and-control (C2) domain names hardcoded into the malicious firmware, federal cyber operators effectively severed communication between the threat actors and infected endpoints. Intelligence officials noted that the botnet specialized in covert credential theft and persistent espionage.

The coordinated takedown underscores the effectiveness of legal domain disruption strategies in neutralizing complex nation-state cyber infrastructure.