Michael Gabriel Hernandez
05 March 2025•Update: 06 March 2025
WASHINGTON
The US indicted Wednesday 12 Chinese nationals, including two law enforcement officers, on charges related to sweeping global hacking efforts.
The targets included the Treasury Department and other American government agencies, as well as multiple Asian governments and critics of the Chinese Communist Party.
The Treasury Department acknowledged in December that it had been compromised as part of a "major incident" in which documents were stolen.
Among those facing charges are two officers with China's Ministry of Public Security (MPS) who used a Chinese private firm -- Anxun Information Technology Co. Ltd., or i-Soon -- as cover for their operations, according to unsealed court documents. The documents identified the individuals as Wang Liyu and Sheng Jing.
Eight others indicted Wednesday are allegedly associated with i-Soon, including CEO Wu Haibo, COO Chen Cheng, sales director Wang Zhe and five technical staffers.
The indicted individuals were allegedly acting under the orders of the MPS and China's Ministry of State Security (MSS), which the Justice Department said, "Paid handsomely for stolen data" as the agencies built out what it called a "hacker-for-hire ecosystem." That allegedly included a network of ostensibly private companies, like i-Soon, and contractors in China that were used to hack and steal data in a manner that obscured the CCP's involvement.
In some cases, the companies would work under direct orders from Chinese authorities, while in others they would act "speculatively,” carrying out hacking operations against victims and would then attempt to sell stolen information directly or indirectly to the Chinese government, the Justice Department said in a statement.
If Chinese authorities did not express interest in the information, the companies and contractors would allegedly attempt to sell it to other third parties.
A separate case charged two other hackers Yin Kecheng, and Zhou Shuai, also known as “Coldface” with carrying out a multi-year for-profit hacking campaign. Internet domains associated with the illicit effort were also seized by US authorities. Yin and Zhou remain at large.
The State Department announced rewards of up to $2 million for information leading to their arrests and convictions.
“The Department of Justice will relentlessly pursue those who threaten our cybersecurity by stealing from our government and our people,” Sue Bai, the head of the Justice Department’s National Security Division, said in a statement.
“Today, we are exposing the Chinese government agents directing and fostering indiscriminate and reckless attacks against computers and networks worldwide, as well as the enabling companies and individual hackers that they have unleashed. We will continue to fight to dismantle this ecosystem of cyber mercenaries and protect our national security," she added.
