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Federal prosecutors announced charges Monday against four Chinese intelligence officers for hacking the credit-reporting giant Equifax in one of the largest data breaches in history.
Officials said the massive hack by the members of China’s People’s Liberation Army underscored Beijing’s aggressive pattern of stealing private data to improve its intelligence operations and boost the performance of its domestic companies.
“For years we have witnessed China’s voracious appetite for the personal data of Americans,” Attorney General William Barr said at a press conference. “This data has economic value, and these thefts can feed China’s development of artificial intelligence tools as well as the creation of intelligence targeting packages.”
A grand jury in Atlanta returned a nine-count indictment against PLA operatives Wu Zhiyong, Wang Qian, Xu Ke and Liu Lei on Jan. 28, charging them with wire fraud, economic espionage, conspiracy to commit computer fraud and other offenses.
FBI Deputy Director David Bowdich described the Equifax breach as “the largest theft of sensitive [personally identifying information] by state-sponsored hackers ever recorded.”
The Equifax breach, disclosed in September 2017, exposed the sensitive financial records of nearly 150 million Americans and many other foreigners. After nearly two years of state and federal lawsuits, the company agreed to pay a settlement of at least $650 million.
“The scale of the theft was staggering,” Barr said.
Chinese spies have ramped up espionage-focused hacking in recent years. Their targets — including the Office of Personnel Management and the health insurance titan Anthem — reflect Beijing’s desire to amass dossiers on Americans, especially those with security clearances, in the hope of compromising them.
The Justice Department charged two Chinese hackers with the Anthem breach, and U.S. officials have privately blamed China for the devastating OPM intrusion. Intelligence officials have also linked Beijing to other major cyberattacks, including the Marriott hack that exposed the personal data of roughly 500 million people.
“At the FBI we’ve been saying for years that China will do anything it can to replace the United States as the world’s leading superpower,” Bowdich said. “This indictment is about more than targeting just an American business. It’s about the brazen theft of sensitive personal information of nearly 150 million Americans.”
If the previous cases are any indication, there’s little chance the hackers blamed for the Equifax breach will be apprehended by U.S. officials anytime soon.
Officials routinely acknowledge as much when announcing charges against state-backed hackers, but they say that the charges put bad actors on notice and curtail their ability to live normal lives.
“We’ll keep putting pressure on these bad actors, making sure they understand the risks and the consequences of their actions,” Bowdich said.
https://www.politico.com/news/2020/02/10/us-charges-chinese-spies-with-massive-equifax-hack-113129
Officials said the massive hack by the members of China’s People’s Liberation Army underscored Beijing’s aggressive pattern of stealing private data to improve its intelligence operations and boost the performance of its domestic companies.
“For years we have witnessed China’s voracious appetite for the personal data of Americans,” Attorney General William Barr said at a press conference. “This data has economic value, and these thefts can feed China’s development of artificial intelligence tools as well as the creation of intelligence targeting packages.”
A grand jury in Atlanta returned a nine-count indictment against PLA operatives Wu Zhiyong, Wang Qian, Xu Ke and Liu Lei on Jan. 28, charging them with wire fraud, economic espionage, conspiracy to commit computer fraud and other offenses.
FBI Deputy Director David Bowdich described the Equifax breach as “the largest theft of sensitive [personally identifying information] by state-sponsored hackers ever recorded.”
The Equifax breach, disclosed in September 2017, exposed the sensitive financial records of nearly 150 million Americans and many other foreigners. After nearly two years of state and federal lawsuits, the company agreed to pay a settlement of at least $650 million.
“The scale of the theft was staggering,” Barr said.
Chinese spies have ramped up espionage-focused hacking in recent years. Their targets — including the Office of Personnel Management and the health insurance titan Anthem — reflect Beijing’s desire to amass dossiers on Americans, especially those with security clearances, in the hope of compromising them.
The Justice Department charged two Chinese hackers with the Anthem breach, and U.S. officials have privately blamed China for the devastating OPM intrusion. Intelligence officials have also linked Beijing to other major cyberattacks, including the Marriott hack that exposed the personal data of roughly 500 million people.
“At the FBI we’ve been saying for years that China will do anything it can to replace the United States as the world’s leading superpower,” Bowdich said. “This indictment is about more than targeting just an American business. It’s about the brazen theft of sensitive personal information of nearly 150 million Americans.”
If the previous cases are any indication, there’s little chance the hackers blamed for the Equifax breach will be apprehended by U.S. officials anytime soon.
Officials routinely acknowledge as much when announcing charges against state-backed hackers, but they say that the charges put bad actors on notice and curtail their ability to live normal lives.
“We’ll keep putting pressure on these bad actors, making sure they understand the risks and the consequences of their actions,” Bowdich said.
https://www.politico.com/news/2020/02/10/us-charges-chinese-spies-with-massive-equifax-hack-113129
