DragonImages/iStock(WASHINGTON) — The Department of Justice has indicted two Chinese nationals, accused of working in association with Chinese state security in what the department called an “unrelenting effort” to steal U.S. commercial and defense technology going back more than a decade.
An indictment unsealed Thursday accuses Zhu Hua and Zhang Shilong of being members of a hacking group known as APT10, also known as Stone Panda and MenuPass.
“From at least in or about 2006 up to and including or about 2018, members of the APT10 Group, including [the defendants] conducted extensive campaigns of global intrusions into computer systems,” the indictment says. The Justice Department says the pair worked for a technology company and “acted in association with” Chinese state security.
The Justice Department said that through the “technology theft campaign” that reached into several U.S. states, APT10 “stole hundreds of gigabytes of sensitive data” from a “diverse array” of industries, from space and satellite technology to pharmaceuticals.
“It’s just as if they had broken into American companies and taken the data out physically,” Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein told reporters in announcing the indictment. “It is unacceptable that we continue to uncover cyber crime committed by China against America and other nations.”
In a warning to the Asian nation, Rosenstein said the U.S. and its allies “know what China is doing, why they’re doing it” and sometimes even “who is at the keyboard” while the alleged thefts are going on.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
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