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The US Department of Justice is one of the most important players in the US and Europe.
The DOJ says that two of the Chinese intelligence officers, six served as hackers, and two were insiders at a French aerospace manufacturer.
The intelligence officers, Zha Rong and Chai Meng, and other co-conspirators, worked for the Jiangsu Province Ministry of State Security ('JSSD'), headquartered in Nanjing, which is a provincial foreign intelligence arm of the People's Republic of China's Ministry of State Security ('MSS'), "the DOJ said today in a press release.
US officials claim that between January 2010 to May 2015, the two JSSD intelligence officers "and their team of hackers" focused their efforts on stealing technology to a new US-based counterpart.
The DOJ alleges that with the help of the two insiders, the JSSD intelligence officers coordinated a team of five hackers in hacking the French company and stealing its proprietary turbofan engine technology. The two insiders, identified as Tian Xi and Gu Gen, played a central and crucial role in the hack of the English company, according to the DOJ.
US investigators say the two insiders worked for the Chinese company's Chinese office in the city of Suzhou, in China's Jiangsu province. <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> Suicide The DOJ says that this tip-off is one of the JSSD officers and one of its hackers to delete a domain that links the malware to the JSSD.
In addition, Zhang Gui, Liu Chunliang, Gao Hong Kun, Zhuang Xiaowei, and Ma Zhiqi – also breached other aerospace companies based in Arizona, Massachusetts, and Oregon –all which manufactured parts for the turbofan engine technology they were originally tasked to steal.
Spanned five-year-old, multi-purpose, multi-purpose, multi-purpose, multi-purpose, multi-purpose, and multi-purpose "attacks.
A timeline of the hacks, according to the DOJ indictment, is below:
- January 8, 2010 Hackers breach Capstone Turbine, a Los Angeles-based gas turbine manufacturer, in order to steal data and use the Capstone Turbine website as a "watering hole."
- August 7, 2012 to January 15, 2014 – hackers tried to hack into San Diego-based technology company to steal commercial information and use its website as a "watering hole."
- January 25, 2014 – Tian plants JSSD-developed malware on the French aerospace company's Suzhou office network.
- February 26, 2014 – JSSD Gu alerts that foreign law enforcement has detected malware on its network. JSSD deletes crucial domain linking it to the malware.
- May 2015 – an Oregon-based company that manufactured parts for the turbofan engine and removed the JSSD's malware from its computer systems.
The DOJ believes that the stolen information was used to help an unnamed Chinese state-owned aerospace company develop a comparable engine.
The sixth hacker, named Li Xiao, who worked with the JSSD hackers, Zhang Zhang-Gui, to hack into a San Diego-based technology company for their personal gains. Li allegedly received and used JSSD-developed malware from Zhang.
None of the suspected suspects are in US custody.
At the start of the month, the US arrested and extradited to a high-ranking director in China's Ministry of State Security's (MSS) after the US aviation and aerospace companies.
This is a developing story. The article will be added with information from the DOJ indictment.
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