Seven Chinese citizens faced charges from the US Justice Department for hacking a group that the Chinese government supported. The US Justice Department accused the individuals of targeting U.S. businesses, politicians, candidates, and campaign staff to advance the Chinese government’s “economic espionage and foreign intelligence objectives.”
The indictment says seven people, who were allegedly part of a “group of malicious cyber actors,” conspired to break into computers and commit wire fraud. This is because they were involved with the hacking group’s work, which included hacking into email accounts and phone records.
“This case serves as a reminder of the ends to which the Chinese government is willing to go to target and intimidate its critics, including launching malicious cyber operations aimed at threatening the national security of the United States and our allies,” Merrick Garland said in a statement.
Hackers sent emails that appeared to be from news outlets or journalists to the individuals and companies they targeted. These emails had hidden phishing links that sent information to a server that the alleged hackers controlled.
Targets included individuals at the White House, government agencies, members of Congress from both parties, and occasionally their spouses. Someone also went after campaign staff from both parties before the 2020 election.
In a statement, Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco said, “Over 10,000 malicious emails have affected thousands of people on five continents.” “As alleged in today’s indictment, this prolific global hacking operation—bbacked by the PRC government—ttargeted journalists, political officials, and companies to repress critics of the Chinese regime, compromise government institutions, and steal trade secrets.”
In a news release, the Justice Department made it clear that the indictment “does not allege that the hacking furthered any Chinese government influence operations against the United States.” The report from 2021 confirms that while Chinese actors did collect some information, they did not use it for influence operations.
On Monday morning, the United States put sanctions on the hacking group APT31, saying it was a part of China’s top spy agency. At the same time, the UK government accused Chinese citizens of hacking into voting information in 2021.
