Chinese Nationals Charged in State-Sponsored Hacking Scheme
Staff and professors at multiple Chinese universities helped recruit hackers and linguists to steal from targeted computer networks, including their peers at foreign universities.
(Image by fancycrave1 from PixaBay via Courthouse News)
SAN DIEGO (CN) — According to an indictment unsealed Monday, four Chinese nationals working for a state security department were charged in the Southern District of California on charges of hacking computer systems in industries of significant economic benefit to China to steal intellectual property and avoid lengthy, expensive research and development processes.
According to the newly unsealed 30-page federal grand jury indictment, Ding Xiaoyang, Cheng Qingmin, Zhu Yunmin and Wu Shurong engaged in a yearslong conspiracy between 2011 and 2018. During this time, they worked for a front company created by the Hainan Province Ministry of State Security, a foreign intelligence arm of the People Republic of China’s Ministry of State Security, called Hainan Xiandun Technology Development Co. Ltd.