The Justice Decomposer has filed illegal fees against two Chinese hackers, accusing them of making an attempt to gain knowledge about the progression of coronavirus vaccines as a component of a broader campaign of cyber theft.
The announcement comes less than a week after the United States accused Russia of seeking to borrow data from coronavirus studies.
The indictment against Li Xiaoyu and Dong Jiazhi was issued through a grand jury in Spokane, Washington, accusing them of hacking heaps of companies, governments, organizations, dissidents, clerics and democratic and human rights activists at Beijing’s request for monetary gains and gaining advantages from the Chinese government.
The 11-count indictment coincides with a further complaint about China’s handling of the coronavirus outbreak through President Trump and management officials.
The FBI and the Department of Homeland Security first warned about Chinese piracy efforts to study coronavirus vaccines in May. China denies that it promotes such activities.
Li, 34, and Dong, 33, were charged with computer fraud, conspiracy to borrow industry secrets, unauthorized access to a computer, and annoying identity theft. They allegedly committed their piracy crusade from China for more than a decade in opposition to targets in the United States, Australia, Belgium, Germany, Japan, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Spain, South Korea, Sweden and the United Kingdom. Specific industries included pharmaceuticals, high-tech production and cryptocurrencies.
“China has now taken its place, alongside Russia, Iran, and North Korea, in this shameful club of nations that are offering a haven to cybercriminals in exchange for those criminals” on call “for paintings to gain state advantage, here to fuel the Chinese Communist Party’s insatiable famine for high-value assets acquired by U.S. and non-Chinese corporations.
The investigation began after a Chinese government-backed intrusion into computers at the Department of Energy’s Hanford site in east Washington, Spokane U.S. Attorney William Hyslop said.
“China steals intellectual assets and that strengthens its economy, and then uses this illicit gain as a weapon to silence any country that dares to defy its illegal actions,” said FBI Deputy Director David Bowdich.
The formal indictment alleges that Li and Dong exploited publicly known software vulnerabilities to gain access to their targets, in many cases without delay after the breaches were announced and before an available solution.
The prosecution is from a Justice Dement program introduced in 2018 that prioritizes threats to China’s national security. The government says 80% of all federal economic espionage prosecutions have a connection to China.