US charges two Chinese for state hacking

The United States Department of Justice has accused two Chinese of carrying out illegal hacking attacks for years as part of the APT10 group. According to Chinese state media, the US is doing the same.

One of the accused is said to have operated under the aliases VNX, Alayos and Godkiller. The other would have used the nickname Atreexp. The two are suspected of computer break-ins, fraud and identity theft. They would have committed the offenses between 2006 and 2018, according to the US Department of Justice.

According to the US, the two are part of the Advanced Persistent Threat 10 group and worked for the Huaying Haitai Science and Technology Development Company, but acted on behalf of the Chinese state. Among other things, they are said to have contributed to attempts to obtain information about aviation, ships, satellites, telecommunications and processors, not only in the US but in a dozen countries.

In recent years, the US has indicted Chinese several times for, among other things, economic espionage via ICT attacks. This time, the United Kingdom is standing next to the US. The UK accuses China of violating the 2015 G20 agreement not to carry out ICT attacks among themselves for economic gain.

The Chinese newspaper Global Times, owned by state publisher People’s Daily, write in a comment that China is also frequently attacked in the political, economic, military and scientific fields. “According to public information, the Equation Group, a hacking group under the NSA, has penetrated key targets on the global internet since 2000.” states the newspaper further.