US Indicts Two Chinese Government Hackers Over Global Hacking Campaign

The US Department of Justice on Thursday charged two Chinese
hackers associated with the Chinese government for hacking numerous
companies and government agencies in a dozen countries.

The Chinese nationals, Zhu Hua (known online as Afwar,
CVNX, Alayos and Godkiller) and Zhang Shilong (known online
as Baobeilong, Zhang Jianguo and Atreexp), are believed to be
members of a state-sponsored hacking group known as Advanced
Persistent Threat 10 (APT 10) or Cloudhopper that has been
working from over a decade to steal business and
technology secrets^[1]
from companies and government agencies around the world.

According to the indictment, the
alleged hackers targeted more than 45 companies and government
agencies from 2006 to 2018 and stole “hundreds of gigabytes” of
sensitive data and personal information from its targets.
^[2]

Both Hua and Shilong worked for Huaying Haitai Science and
Technology Development Company and are alleged to have committed
these crimes at the direction of Tianjin State Security Bureau, a
department of China’s Ministry of State Security.

The victims included numerous managed service providers (MSPs),
the U.S. Navy, NASA Goddard Space Center, and Jet Propulsion
Laboratory, and the Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley
National Laboratory.

Other victims included a major financial institution, three
telecommunications, and consumer electronics companies, two
business consultancies, a healthcare company, a mining company,
three commercial and industrial manufacturing companies, an oil and
gas exploration company, a biotechnology firm, an automotive
supplier and a drilling company.
These targeted companies had victims in 12 countries including
Brazil, Canada, Finland, France, Germany, India, Japan, Sweden,
Switzerland, the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom, and the
United States.

Besides this, these Chinese hackers are also accused of gaining
access to over 40 computers on U.S. Navy networks and stealing the
Social Security numbers (SSNs), phone numbers, email addresses and
other personal information of more than 100,000 Navy personnel.

The United States accused Chinese government of violating the
commitment of not stealing trade secrets and other confidential
business information through computer hacking that the country made
to members of the international community in 2015.

The duo is now wanted by the FBI and has been charged with
conspiracy to commit computer intrusions, conspiracy to commit wire
fraud, and aggravated identity theft.

The indictment against two hackers came less than two months
after the DoJ charged 10
Chinese hackers also linked to APT10, including two
intelligence officers, for stealing aircraft engine technology from
American and French aerospace firms.
^[4]