Chinese charged with stealing military aircraft data

The US government has arrested a Chinese man and charged him with digital espionage. The accused allegedly helped hackers, who then broke into Boeing and stole data about military aircraft.

Bloomberg reports this based on documents released by the Los Angeles court. Prosecutors say Chinese Su Bin, who owns an aviation company in Canada, collaborated with two individuals in China to steal military data. Bin is said to have played an advisory role and told the others what data to steal.

The hackers then allegedly stole about 65GB of data. Among other things, they penetrated Boeing and stole data about the C17, a military cargo plane. The Chinese would also have been interested in a range of Lockheed Martin fighter planes, including the F-22 and F-35.

China and the United States have been engaged in a spy riot for some time. Chinese are regularly indicted for digital espionage and the United States is considering stopping Chinese people from coming to American hacker conferences. However, documents also show that the United States is conducting hacking attacks on China.