The Justice Department has declared crimes against 12 Chinese government-linked hackers accused of hacking 100 U.S. organizations, including the U.S. Treasury Department.
The accused alleged played a “critical role” in China’s hacker employee ecosystem, a senior Justice Department official said Wednesday in a background call with reporters including TechCrunch. The official added that the accused, including contract hackers and Chinese law enforcement officers, aimed at organizing in the U.S. and globally, with the goal of “suppressing freedom of speech and religious freedom.”
The Justice Department also confirmed that two people were prosecuted with Chinese government-backed hacker Apt27 or Silk swimsuit.
The two, known as Yin Kecheng and Zhou Shuai, are accused of “year-old, for-profit computer invasion campaigns” that date back to 2013. Prosecutors said the movements allowed the two to sell the information to third parties, some of whom had connections with the Chinese government before selling the information to victim organizations.
According to a now unfinished prosecution by the U.S. Department of Justice, the two hackers access victim networks by exploiting multiple security flaws in widely used enterprise software. New research from Microsoft published on Wednesday Confirm hackers in Microsoft Exchange, Palo Alto Networks Firewalls, Citrix NetScaler appliances and Ivanti pulse connection safety appliance Just in January.
U.S. attorneys said the organizations targeted by Yang and Zhou include U.S. technology companies, think tanks, law firms, defense contractors, local governments, health care systems and universities.
Yin is also The latest wide hacker from the U.S. Treasury In December 2024, Yin was approved by the Ministry of Finance’s Foreign Assets Control Office after linking the vagina with the Chinese Ministry of National Security (MSS), and the country’s intelligence agency was responsible for the country’s foreign intelligence collection.
According to the Justice Department, the FBI seized on the virtual private servers and other infrastructure that Yin used to hack in the U.S. Treasury Department.
The Justice Department also announced charges against eight employees on Wednesday Chinese government hacker contractor I-Soonincluding its CEO and COO, and two officials from China’s Ministry of Public Safety, which oversees the country’s public policing government agencies.
According to the Justice Department, I-Soon employees participated in a wide range of hacking campaigns from 2016 to 2023, generating “ten millions of dollars.” I-Soon employees are also accused of hacking at the request of Chinese security agencies and infringing on their “own initiatives” before selling the stolen data to the Chinese government.
The Department of Justice said the hacking campaign has targeted I-SOON employees with a number of U.S.-based organizations, including a religious group that criticizes the Chinese government, an organization that aims to promote religious freedom in China and several U.S. news organizations.
Prosecutors said Yin’s data was also sold through I-soon, although it is not clear whether this includes data stolen during the U.S. Treasury Department violation.
The defendant is still very big. The U.S. State Department’s Judicial Rewards Program has announced up to $10 million in rewards to help track any I-Soon employees. In addition, a $2 million reward is being offered to obtain information that led to Yin and Zhao’s arrest and conviction.
