The US Accuses China of Data Theft

On Monday, the Justice Department of the United States accused three Chinese state security officials of organizing a vast hacking operation to steal sensitive and secret information from government entities, universities, and corporations worldwide.The announcement came as the White House officially accused the China government of breaking the Microsoft email systems and paying the criminal groups to extract the companies for millions of dollars in ransomware attacks, showing that the Biden administration was committed to challenging Beijing violently.

 In an accusation that had been taped up since May 2021, the Justice Department accused the officers in a regional foreign intelligence bureau, the Hainan Province Ministry of State Security, of forming a fake information security company that they used as a front for an extensive hacking procedure.

The officers, Ding Xiaoyang, Cheng Qingmin, and Zhu Yunmin, used the front company to bring about a group of computer hackers and linguists who had hacked into the computer systems all around the world to benefit China and hide the role of Beijing in the robberies, according to the indictment. One of the hackers, Wu Shurong, was accused of making malware used to break into foreign computer systems.

 From the years 2011 to 2018, the Chinese intelligence officers have targeted companies, universities, and government agencies in many countries, namely United States, Austria, Cambodia, Canada, Germany, Indonesia, Malaysia, Norway, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom, according to court documents. The allegations highlight the willingness of China to deliberately disregard a 2015 agreement with the United States.