US and allies: New hacks mean China broke 2015 economic espionage pact

Enlarge / Well, that whole thing clearly worked out well, didn't it? (credit: JASON LEE/AFP/Getty Images)
In a press conference this morning, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein and FBI Director Christopher Wray announced indictments of two Chinese men connected with China's Ministry of State Security and the hacking group known as APT 10. The two are accused of being responsible for a recent wave of attacks on managed service providers (MSPs) that ultimately targeted both companies and government agencies in 12 countries, including the US. The two are also accused of stealing the Social Security numbers and other personal data of more than 100,000 Navy service members.
“The indictment alleges that the defendants were part of a group that hacked computers in at least a dozen countries and gave China’s intelligence service access to sensitive business information,” said Rosenstein. “This is outright cheating and theft, and it gives China an unfair advantage at the expense of law-abiding businesses and countries that follow the international rules in return for the privilege of participating in the global economic system.”
Zhu Hua (朱华, also known by the hacker names Afwar, CVNX, Alayos, and Godkiller) and Zhang Shilong (张士龙, AKA  Baobeilong, Zhang Jianguo, and Atreexp) were charged with conspiracy to commit computer intrusions, conspiracy to commit wire fraud, and aggravated identity theft. Both worked for Huaying Haitai Science and Technology Development Company and are alleged to have acted at the direction of the Chinese Ministry of State Security’s Tianjin State Security Bureau. From as far back as 2006 up until this year, Zhu and Zhang targeted and hacked into a broad range of companies and organizations, seeking intellectual property and confidential business and technological information of more than 45 technology companies in the US alone, as well as US government agencies.
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