U.S. Department of Justice Indicts Five Members of the Chinese PLA 'Unit 61398' for Cyber Espionage

[InfoSec News <alerts () infosecnews org>]

http://www.infosecnews.org/u-s-department-of-justice-indicts-five-members-of-the-chinese-pla-unit-61398-for-cyber-espionage/

By William Knowles
Senior Editor
InfoSec News
May 19, 2014

For the first time ever, a U.S. grand jury in the Western District of 
Pennsylvania has indicted five Chinese military hackers for computer 
hacking, economic espionage, trade secret theft, aggravated identity 
theft, and other offenses directed at six American victims such as a labor 
union, critical infrastructure, metals and solar industries from 2006 to 
the present.

The 56 page indictment alleges that the defendants, Wang Dong, Sun 
Kailiang, Wen Xinyu, Huang Zhenyu, and Gu Chunhui, who were officers in 
Unit 61398 of the Third Department of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army 
(PLA) hacked into American entities, to maintain unauthorized access to 
their computers and to steal information from those entities that would be 
useful to their competitors in China.

This including state-owned enterprises (SOEs). In some cases, it alleges, 
the conspirators stole trade secrets that would have been particularly 
beneficial to Chinese companies at the time they were stolen. In other 
cases, it alleges, the conspirators also stole sensitive, internal 
communications that would provide a competitor, or an adversary in 
litigation, with insight into the strategy and vulnerabilities of the 
American entity.

“For too long, the Chinese government has blatantly sought to use cyber 
espionage to obtain economic advantage for its state-owned industries,” 
said FBI Director James B. Comey. “The indictment announced today is an 
important step. But there are many more victims, and there is much more to 
be done. With our unique criminal and national security authorities, we 
will continue to use all legal tools at our disposal to counter cyber 
espionage from all sources.”

[...]

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