The US justice department has indicted two Chinese men accused of hacking into the computer networks of companies and government agencies in Western countries.<\/p>\n
The pair are allegedly part of a “hacking group” known as Advanced Persistent Threat 10<\/a>, affiliated with China’s main intelligence service.<\/p>\n They have not been arrested.<\/p>\n The UK, Australia, Canada, Japan, the Netherlands, New Zealand and Sweden were also reportedly targeted.<\/p>\n The UK government said it was joining allies in holding the Chinese government responsible for a global campaign targeting commercial secrets.<\/p>\n Zhu Hua and Zhang Shilong worked for a company called Huaying Haitai and in association with the Chinese Ministry of State Security, the US court filing says.<\/p>\n US corporations involved in aviation, space and satellite technology, and government agencies including the Navy and the space agency Nasa were targeted, it adds.<\/p>\n Announcing the unsealing of the indictments, US Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein said China had violated a 2015 agreement under which it had pledged to not engage in commercial cyber-spying.<\/p>\n Mr Rosenstein said his department’s move had been co-ordinated with US allies in Europe and Asia to rebuff “China’s economic aggression”.<\/p>\n He added: “We want China to cease its illegal cyber activities.”<\/p>\n FBI Director Christopher Wray said the two men were at present “beyond US jurisdiction”.<\/p>\n UK Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt said: “This campaign is one of the most significant and widespread cyber intrusions against the UK and allies uncovered to date, targeting trade secrets and economies around the world.<\/p>\n “These activities must stop. They go against the commitments made to the UK in 2015, and, as part of the G20, not to conduct or support cyber-enabled theft of intellectual property or trade secrets.”<\/p>\n Source: bbc.co.uk<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"‘Economic aggression’<\/h2>\n