http://www.infosecnews.org/u-s-department-of-justice-indicts-five-members-of-the-chinese-pla-unit-61398-for-cyber-espionage/
By William Knowles
Senior Editor
InfoSec News
May 19, 2014
For the first time ever, a U.S. grand jury in the Western District of
Pennsylvania has indicted five Chinese military hackers for computer
hacking, economic espionage, trade secret theft, aggravated identity
theft, and other offenses directed at six American victims such as a labor
union, critical infrastructure, metals and solar industries from 2006 to
the present.
The 56 page indictment alleges that the defendants, Wang Dong, Sun
Kailiang, Wen Xinyu, Huang Zhenyu, and Gu Chunhui, who were officers in
Unit 61398 of the Third Department of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army
(PLA) hacked into American entities, to maintain unauthorized access to
their computers and to steal information from those entities that would be
useful to their competitors in China.
This including state-owned enterprises (SOEs). In some cases, it alleges,
the conspirators stole trade secrets that would have been particularly
beneficial to Chinese companies at the time they were stolen. In other
cases, it alleges, the conspirators also stole sensitive, internal
communications that would provide a competitor, or an adversary in
litigation, with insight into the strategy and vulnerabilities of the
American entity.
“For too long, the Chinese government has blatantly sought to use cyber
espionage to obtain economic advantage for its state-owned industries,”
said FBI Director James B. Comey. “The indictment announced today is an
important step. But there are many more victims, and there is much more to
be done. With our unique criminal and national security authorities, we
will continue to use all legal tools at our disposal to counter cyber
espionage from all sources.”
[...]
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