Washington:
Twelve Chinese nationals, including two officers from the Ministry of Public Security, have been indicted for participating in a series of hacking operations, including a 2024 breach of the U.S. Treasury, the Justice Department announced on Wednesday.
The department stated that other alleged victims include Chinese dissidents based in the U.S., foreign ministries of several Asian countries, religious organizations, and additional U.S. federal and state government agencies.
Among the indicted are eight employees of a Chinese company, Anxun Information Technology Co. Ltd (also known as i-Soon), and two Ministry of Public Security officers. They were charged in New York for their involvement in hacking email accounts, cell phones, servers, and websites between 2016 and 2023.
Matthew Podolsky, the acting U.S. attorney, said in a statement, “For years, these 10 defendants—two of whom we allege are officials of the People’s Republic of China (PRC)—used sophisticated hacking techniques to target religious organizations, journalists, and government agencies, all to gather sensitive information for the PRC’s benefit.”
The Justice Department revealed that the private Chinese hackers were, in some cases, paid by the Chinese ministries of public security and state security to target specific victims. In other instances, the hackers allegedly targeted victims opportunistically, identifying vulnerable computers and then selling the stolen information to the Chinese government.
i-Soon reportedly charged the ministries between $10,000 and $75,000 for each successfully hacked email inbox.
All 10 defendants remain at large, and the U.S. State Department has offered a reward of up to $10 million for information leading to their arrest.
The alleged hacking targets included a missionary organization, a group advocating for human rights and religious freedom in China, a Hong Kong newspaper, and the foreign ministries of Taiwan, India, South Korea, and Indonesia.
‘Silk Typhoon’
In a separate case, an indictment was unsealed in Washington against Yin Kecheng and Zhou Shuai, alleged members of the hacker group "APT 27," also known as "Silk Typhoon."
The Justice Department stated, “Yin, Zhou, and their co-conspirators exploited vulnerabilities in victim networks, conducted reconnaissance once inside those networks, and installed malware, such as PlugX malware, that provided persistent access.”
Their targets reportedly included U.S.-based technology companies, think tanks, law firms, defense contractors, local governments, healthcare systems, and universities.
Yin was sanctioned by the U.S. in January for his alleged involvement in a hack of the Treasury Department last year. According to U.S. media reports, then-Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and other senior Treasury officials were among those targeted.
The State Department has announced a reward of $2 million each for information leading to the arrest of Yin and Zhou, who are believed to be in China.
Several countries, particularly the United States, have raised concerns over what they describe as Chinese government-backed hacking activities targeting their governments, militaries, and businesses.
Beijing has denied these allegations, stating that it opposes and actively combats cyberattacks.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
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