PENNSYLVANIA — A federal grand jury indicted five Chinese military hackers for computer hacking, economic espionage and other offenses aimed at six American victims in the U.S. power, metals and solar products industries, the federal government announced today.
The indictment alleges that the defendants conspired to hack 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, including state-owned enterprises, officials said.
“This is a case alleging economic espionage by members of the Chinese military and represents the first ever charges against a state actor for this type of hacking,” U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder said at a press conference.
Adding, “The range of trade secrets and other sensitive business information stolen in this case is significant and demands an aggressive response. Success in the global market place should be based solely on a company’s ability to innovate and compete, not on a sponsor government’s ability to spy and steal business secrets. This Administration will not tolerate actions by any nation that seeks to illegally sabotage American companies and undermine the integrity of fair competition in the operation of the free market.”
Victims include:
- Westinghouse Electric Co.
- U.S. subsidiaries of SolarWorld AG
- United States Steel Corp.
- Allegheny Technologies Inc.
- The United Steel, Paper and Forestry, Rubber, Manufacturing, Energy
- Allied Industrial
- Service Workers International Union
- Alcoa Inc.
In some cases, the indictment alleges that 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.”
Those indicted are 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.
In response to the charges, a New York Times report states that the Chinese government said that its military had never been involved in stealing trade secrets.
“The U.S., fabricating facts and using so-called stealing network secrets as an excuse, announced indictments against five Chinese military officers,” the Chinese Foreign Ministry said in a statement. “This is a serious violation of basic norms of international relations and damages Sino-U.S. cooperation and mutual trust.” China has “lodged a protest” with the United States and “urges the U.S. to immediately correct its error and revoke its so-called indictment,” it added.