Chinese Hackers

[kyonides]

US charges 5 Chinese citizens in global hacking campaign

https://apnews.com/abe63876eedc5a95c90a37ca88024809

The Justice Department has charged five Chinese citizens with hacks targeting more than 100 companies and institutions in the United States and abroad, including social media and video game companies as well as universities and telecommunications providers, officials said Wednesday.

The five defendants remain fugitives, but prosecutors say two Malaysian businessmen charged with conspiring with the alleged hackers to profit off the attacks on the billion-dollar video game industry were arrested in Malaysia this week and now face extradition proceedings.

In unsealing three related indictments, officials laid out a wide-ranging hacking scheme targeting a variety of business sectors and academia and carried out by a China-based group known as APT41. That group has been tracked over the last year by the cybersecurity firm Mandiant Threat Intelligence, which described the hackers as prolific and successful at blending criminal and espionage operations.
The hackers relied on a series of tactics, including attacks in which they managed to compromise the networks of software providers, modify the code and conduct further attacks on the companies’ customers.

The Justice Department did not directly link the hackers to the Chinese government. But officials said the hackers were probably serving as proxies for Beijing because some of the targets, including pro-democracy activists and students at a Taiwan university, were in line with government interests and didn’t appear to be about scoring a profit.

Well, one thing was to see some Chinese hackers to publish a fake game that would allow them to steal data from users but another one is to steal actual videogames! Well, their digital currency at least, the very same money they sold on the black market later on.

By the way, one of the suspects admitted he had a connection with the Chinese Ministry of State Security.