The US has filed a lawsuit against two Chinese citizens who allegedly stole military secrets and research on COVID-19 as part of a hacker attack. According to the US Department of Justice, they were allegedly supported by Beijing.
The US Department of Justice has accused two alleged Chinese hackers of stealing hundreds of millions of dollars and trade secrets. Protection data and research related to the development of a coronavirus vaccine are among those secrets. It’s on the agency’s website.
The indictment came out on Tuesday. Two Chinese citizens, Li Xiaoyu and Dong Jiazhi, are accused of carrying out a massive global hacking campaign. An investigation into their alleged activities was launched back in 2015.
The U.S. Department of Justice has not named any specific company that was attacked by hackers. American lawyer William Hislop stated that “there are hundreds and hundreds of victims in the United States and around the world”. Between 2014 and 2020, he said, two defendants stole terabytes of data from computers around the world.
In addition to attempting to steal trade secrets, hackers are said to be pursuing “non-governmental organizations and individual dissidents, clergy, as well as democracy and human rights activists in the United States and abroad, including Hong Kong and China”.
US officials have never missed an opportunity to repeatedly accuse other countries of government-sponsored hacking campaigns. Now they have said that Beijing has officially joined this “shameful club”. In fact, Washington has for years accused Beijing of conducting coordinated cyberattacks. John Demers, deputy attorney general for national security, said in a statement:
“Now China, along with Russia, Iran and North Korea, has taken its place in this shameful club of countries that provide refuge for cybercriminals in exchange for their willingness to work for the state”, – he said.