U.S. announces first criminal charges against foreign country for cyberspying - The Washington Post: The Justice Department on Monday charged members of the Chinese military with conducting economic cyber-espionage against American companies, marking the first time that the United States has leveled such criminal charges against a foreign country.
Industries targeted by the alleged cyberspying ranged from nuclear to steel to solar energy, officials said. In some cases, they said, the hacking by a military unit in Shanghai was conducted for no other reason than to give a competitive advantage to Chinese companies, including state-owned enterprises.
In retaliation, the statement said, “China has decided to suspend the activities of Sino-U.S. Cyber Working Group.” It left open the prospect of “further reaction” in the case.
The indictment against members of the People’s Liberation Army follows vows by senior administration officials to hold other nations to account for computer theft of intellectual property from American industry.
China is widely seen as the nation that has been most aggressive in waging cyber-espionage against the United States.
Holder said a federal grand jury in Pittsburgh returned an indictment against five members of a Chinese military unit in a Shanghai building, accusing them of conspiring together and with others to hack into the computers of six US. entities. Named in the case as defendants were Wang Dong, Sun Kailiang, Wen Xinyu, Huang Zhenyu and Gu Chunhui, all officers of Unit 61398 of the 3rd Department of the People’s Liberation Army. Wang is also known as UglyGorilla, his hacker handle. Gu used the alias KandyGoo and Sun was also known as Jack Sun, prosecutors said.
