Only rarely does the West get a glimpse inside the vast hacker-for-hire contractor ecosystem that enables China’s digital intrusion campaigns worldwide. Now a new set of criminal charges against a dozen Chinese men, including two government officials, accuses them of a vast espionage campaign that included breaching the US Treasury, and goes as far as revealing the internal communications of some of those alleged hackers, their tools, and their business relationships.
The US Department of Justice on Wednesday announced the indictments of 12 Chinese individuals accused of more than a decade of hacker intrusions around the world, including eight staffers for the contractor i-Soon, two officials at China’s Ministry of Public Security who allegedly worked with them, and two other men who were allegedly part of the Chinese hacker group APT27 or Silk Typhoon, which prosecutors say was involved in the breach late last year of the US Treasury.
“Today, we are exposing the Chinese government agents directing and fostering indiscriminate and reckless attacks against computers and networks worldwide, as well as the enabling companies and individual hackers that they have unleashed.” Sue Bai, who leads the Justice Department’s National Security Division, wrote in a statement. “The Department of Justice will relentlessly pursue those who threaten our cybersecurity by stealing from our government and our people.”
According to US prosecutors, the group as a whole has targeted US state and federal agencies, foreign ministries of countries across Asia, Chinese dissidents, US-based media outlets that criticize the Chinese government, and most recently the US Treasury, which was breached between September and December of last year.
This is a developing story, please check back for updates.
