1. Skip to content
  2. Skip to main menu
  3. Skip to more DW sites

US charges Chinese nationals with hacking

December 20, 2018

US prosecutors have accused two Chinese nationals of working with the Ministry of State Security in China. The FBI accused China of aiming to replace the US as the world's superpower with "illegal methods."

https://p.dw.com/p/3ASMr
US flag on the International Space Station
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/Newscom/UPI Photo/NASA

Zhu Hua and Zhang Jianguo worked in China to hack into computers and steal intellectual property, US prosecutors charged on Thursday. Their targets included the US Navy, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and a range of aviation, space and satellite-technology companies.

US authorities said the two men worked in association with China's Ministry of State Security.

"From at least in or about 2006 up to and including in or about 2018, members of the APT10 Group, including Zhu and Zhang, conducted extensive campaigns of intrusions into computer systems around the world," the Justice Department said. 

The Justice Department accused China of breaking a 2015 pact to curb cyber espionage for corporate purposes. It said the hackers had targeted numerous managed service providers (MSPs).

"These defendants allegedly compromised MSP clients in at least a dozen countries," Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein said. "It is unacceptable that we continue to uncover cybercrime committed by China against other nations."

"China's goal, simply put, is to replace the US as the world's leading superpower and they're using illegal methods to get there," FBI Director Chris Wray said at a news conference on Thursday.

Huawei Technologies' Meng Wanzhou in court in Canada
Huawei Technologies' Meng Wanzhou in court in CanadaImage: picture-alliance/AP Photo/The Canadian Press/J. Wolsack

Other global targets

The US charges of stealing state secrets and technologies and compromising government computers by the Chinese agents were expected to be supported by Australia, Britain, Canada, Japan, the Netherlands, New Zealand and Sweden, according to an unnamed source cited by Reuters.

The British government said in a statement that the hacking was conducted by a group known as APT 10, acting on behalf of China's Ministry of State Security.

The charges follow the October indictment of 10 Chinese nationals over a 5-year scheme to steal engine technology from US and French aerospace firms, the extradition to the US from Belgium of a senior Chinese intelligence official on charges of stealing industry secrets and the December arrest in Canada on the request of the US of Meng Wanzhou, Huawei Technologies' chief financial officer.

jm/msh (Reuters, AFP)

Each evening at 1830 UTC, DW's editors send out a selection of the day's hard news and quality feature journalism. You can sign up to receive it directly here.