Washington DC, USA: Five Chinese citizens were charged by the US Justice Department of hacking over 100 companies and institutions in USA and in many other countries including Indian government’s networks.
The Chinese nationals stole sensitive and valuable data and business intelligence. The US Deputy Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen announced that, “Three indictments have been unsealed in the matter that collectively charge five Chinese national with computer hacking and two Malaysian nationals for helping some of those hackers target victims and sell the data.”
In a statement given by US Justice Department, the Malaysian nationals were arrested on Sunday, and the Chinese nationals have been declared as fugitive.
Rosen said, “The department of Justice has every tool available to disrupt the illegal computer intrusions and cyberattacks by these Chinese citizens. Regrettably, the Chinese Communist Party has chosen a different path of making China safe for cyber-criminals so long as they attack computers outside China and steal intellectual property helpful to China.”
The Indictment of US Justice Department said, “In about 2019, the conspirators compromised Government of India websites, as well as virtual private networks and database servers supporting the Government of India. The conspirators used VPS PROVIDER servers to connect to an Open VPN network owned by the Government of India.”
The conspirators installed the “Cobalt Strike” malwares on Indian government protected computers, while they attacked the computers.
The attackers chose their victims from software development, computer hardware, telecommunication, social media and video game companies, non-profit organisations, universities, think tanks, foreign governments, pro-democracy politicians and activists around the world.
The intrusions were tracked by the security researchers using “APT41, Barium, Winnti, Wicked Panda and Wicked Spider labels.”