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Two Chinese nationals have been indicted for in search of to steal COVID-19 vaccine analysis and hacking tons of of corporations within the United States and overseas, together with defence contractors, the US Justice Department stated Tuesday.
Li Xiaoyu, 34, and Dong Jiazhi, 33, additionally focused human rights activists within the United States, China, and Hong Kong, Assistant Attorney General John Demers stated.
The indictment comes amid rising tensions between the worldwide superpowers fueled by the coronavirus pandemic which President Donald Trump blames on China.
Li and Dong, who’re believed to be in China, acted in some situations “for their own personal gain” and in others for the good thing about China’s Ministry of State Security, Demers stated at a information convention.
“China has now taken its place, alongside Russia, Iran, and North Korea, in that shameful club of nations that provide a safe haven for cyber criminals,” Demers stated.
The Justice Department said Li and Dong, who have been classmates at {an electrical} engineering school in Chengdu, have been engaged in a pc hacking marketing campaign for the previous 10 years.
They have focused corporations within the United States, Australia, Belgium, Germany, Japan, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Spain, South Korea, Sweden, and Britain, it stated.
“Targeted industries included, among others, high tech manufacturing; medical device, civil, and industrial engineering; business, educational, and gaming software; solar energy; pharmaceuticals; defence,” it stated.
“More recently, the defendants probed for vulnerabilities in computer networks of companies developing COVID-19 vaccines, testing technology, and treatments,” it stated.
Justice Department officers stated that Li and Dong focused biotech corporations in California, Maryland, Massachusetts and elsewhere however didn’t seem to have truly compromised any COVID-19 analysis.
Dissidents focused
The Justice Department stated in addition they focused “non-governmental organisations, and individual dissidents, clergy, and democratic and human rights activists in the United States and abroad, including Hong Kong and China.”
According to the indictment, Li and Dong provided the Ministry of State Security with passwords for private electronic mail accounts belonging to Chinese dissidents, a Hong Kong neighborhood organiser, the pastor of a Christian church in Xian and a former Tiananmen Square protestor.
Among the fabric allegedly stolen have been emails between a dissident and the Dalai Lama’s workplace.
The pair have been accused of stealing supply code from software program corporations, details about medication underneath improvement from pharmaceutical companies and weapons designs and testing information from defence contractors.
Targeted overseas corporations weren’t recognized by title.
But in response to the indictment they included a Dutch electronics agency, a Swedish gaming firm, a Lithuanian gaming firm, a German software program engineering agency, a Belgian engineering software program firm, an Australian defence contractor, a South Korean shipbuilding agency, a Spanish electronics and defence agency, and a British synthetic intelligence and most cancers analysis firm.
Li and Dong allegedly stole info from defence contractors relating to army satellite tv for pc packages, army wi-fi networks and communications techniques, and microwave and laser techniques.
The indictment was returned by a grand jury within the Eastern District of Washington state on July 7 however was solely unsealed on Tuesday.
Li and Dong have been charged with conspiracy to commit pc fraud, conspiracy to commit theft of commerce secrets and techniques, wire fraud, unauthorized entry of a pc and identification theft.
China accused the United States final month of smearing Beijing following allegations that Chinese hackers have been trying to steal coronavirus analysis.
The claims exacerbated tensions between the 2 international locations, which have traded barbs over the origin of the pandemic that has killed greater than 600,000 folks because it emerged in China late final yr.
“China expresses strong dissatisfaction and firm opposition to such smearing,” overseas ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian stated.
“Judging from past records, the US has carried out the largest cybertheft operations worldwide,” Zhao stated.
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