The Ministry of Justice has announced criminal charges against 12 dancers linked to the Chinese government, who are accused of hacking over 100 US organizations, including the US Treasury, over a decade.
The accused people all played a “key role” in China’s lease ecosystem, a DOJ senior official, including TechCrunch, on Wednesday, said on Wednesday. The official added that the defendants, who include contract hackers and Chinese law enforcement officials, targeted US organizations and worldwide for the purposes of “suppressing freedom of speech and religious freedoms”.
DOJ also confirmed that two of the defendants are linked to the Hacking team backed by the China Government APT27 or the Silk Typhoon.
The two people, named Yin Kecheng and Zhou Shuai, are accused of being “multi -year, speculative computer invasion campaigns” dating back to 2013. Prosecutors say these campaigns have allowed the two people to steal data from the victims’ organizations.
The two hackers gained access to victims’ networks, taking advantage of multiple security imperfections in a widely used business software, according to the DOJ indictment that is now not infected with DOJ. New research from Microsoft was published Wednesday He confirms that hackers have exploited defects at Microsoft Exchange, Palo Alto Networks Firewalls, Citrix Netscaler devices and Ivanti Pulse Connect Secure Apps just in January.
Ivanti’s security officer Daniel Spicer told TechCrunch that the company “can’t talk” in Microsoft’s performance, but said he was moving quickly to correct the error.
Organizations targeted by Yin and Zhou include technology -based technology companies, Think Tanks, law firms, defense contractors, local governments, healthcare systems and universities, US prosecutors said.
Yin has also been linked to the recent widespread hack of the US Treasury in December 2024.
According to Doj, the FBI occupied the virtual private servers and other infrastructure used by Yin to carry out the hack in the American treasury.
The Ministry of Justice also announced on Wednesday, charges against eight officials of the Chinese Government Hacking I-SOON contractor, including Managing Director and Managing Director, along with two supposed public officials of the Ministry of Public Security.
According to Doj, i-soon officials participated in a broad hacking campaign from 2016 to 2023, creating “tens of millions of dollars”. I-SOON officials are also accused of conducting halls at the request of China’s security services, as well as to carry out invasions with their “own initiative” prior to the sale of stolen data to the Chinese government.
This hacking campaign has seen i-soon officials target several US-based organizations, prosecutors say, including a religious organization criticizing the Chinese government, an organization that focused on promoting religious freedoms in China and in China.
The data stolen by Yin were also sold through i-soon, prosecutors say, though it is not clear whether it includes stolen data during a violation of the US treasury.
The defendants remain in wide. The US Ministry of Foreign Ministry rewards program announced a reward of up to $ 10 million for information that helps monitor any i-soon officials. Separately, there is a reward of $ 2 million for information that leads to the arrest and belief of Yin and Zhao.
