Exclusive: Inside the FBI's Fight Against Chinese Cyber-Espionage

[InfoSec News <alerts () infosecnews org>]

http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2014/05/27/exclusive_inside_the_fbi_s_fight_against_chinese_cyber_espionage

By Shane Harris
Foreign Policy
May 27, 2014

SolarWorld was fighting a losing battle. The U.S. subsidiary of the German 
solar panel manufacturer knew that its Chinese competitors, backed by 
generous government subsidies, were flooding the American market with 
steeply discounted solar panels and equipment, making it practically 
impossible for U.S. firms to compete. What SolarWorld didn't know, 
however, was that at the same time it was pleading its case with U.S. 
trade officials, Chinese military hackers were breaking into the company's 
computers and stealing private information that would give Chinese solar 
firms an even bigger unfair advantage, including the company's pricing and 
marketing strategies.

SolarWorld learned about the hacking not from some sophisticated security 
software or an outside consultant, but from FBI agents. In early July 
2012, they called the company and alerted executives to a "persistent 
threat, some kind of attack," said Ben Santarris, SolarWorld's spokesman, 
in an interview. Persistent threat is shorthand for hackers who burrow 
deeply into a computer system to steal information and spy on an 
organization from within. The FBI didn't offer any specifics about the 
nature of the intrusion, Santarris said, but according to a federal 
indictment made public last week, the bureau determined that SolarWorld 
had been infiltrated by hackers working for China's People's Liberation 
Army, who were stealing private documents that would be valuable to 
Chinese state-backed solar companies -- the same ones undercutting 
SolarWorld's business. Armed with the warning from the feds, SolarWorld 
tightened up its computer security, and in September 2012, the intrusions 
appear to have stopped.

That federal investigators already knew SolarWorld had been hacked reveals 
the extensiveness of the Obama administration's campaign, mounted almost 
entirely in secret, to turn the tables on Chinese spies, who U.S. 
officials say are responsible for nearly $300 billion a year in stolen 
intellectual property and lost business to American companies, and who 
have cost Americans jobs.

Interviews with eight current and former U.S. officials who are familiar 
with the now years-long counterintelligence campaign against China show 
that the administration has quietly waged a battle on many fronts. In the 
shadows, U.S. hackers at the National Security Agency (NSA) have broken 
into Chinese computers in order to find out what information has been 
stolen from American companies and who in the Chinese government is 
backing the operations. But closer to home, a team of FBI agents and a 
little-noticed group of prosecutors at the Justice Department have spent 
the past two years preparing to launch a more public offensive. This one, 
which aims to bring criminal charges against foreign government officials 
-- an unprecedented step -- relies on sophisticated cybersleuthing and the 
cooperation of American companies, which are willing to work with federal 
investigators and explain what damage they suffered as the victims of 
economic espionage.

[...]



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