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up front Tuesday 11 February 2020

U.S. says Chinese military stole masses of Americans' data

Continued from Front terintelligence issue, not a clear that Beijing has con-
cyber issue," said Bill Evani- tinued its operations.
The case is the latest U.S. na, the U.S. government's A spokesperson for the Chi-
accusation against Chi- top counterintelligence nese Embassy in Washing-
nese hackers suspected official. The four accused ton did not return an email
of breaching networks of hackers are suspected seeking comment Monday.
American corporations, members of the People's The case resembles a 2014
including steel manufac- Liberation Army, an arm of indictment by the Obama
turers, a hotel chain and the Chinese military that administration Justice De-
a health insurer. It comes was blamed in 2014 for partment that accused
as the Trump administra- a series of intrusions into five members of the PLA
tion has warned against American corporations. of hacking into American
what it sees as the growing Prosecutors say they ex- corporations to steal trade
political and economic in- ploited a software vulner- secrets. U.S. authorities also
fluence of China, and ef- ability to gain access to suspect China in the mas- This July 21, 2012, file photo shows signage at the corporate
forts by Beijing to collect Equifax's computers, ob- sive 2015 breach of the headquarters of Equifax Inc. in Atlanta. Associated Press
data for financial and in- taining log-in credentials federal Office of Personnel
telligence purposes and to that they used to navigate Management and of intru- many Americans, said Ben to Beijing," Buchanan said.
steal research and innova- databases and review sions into the Marriott hotel Buchanan, a Georgetown Barr, who at an event last
tion. The indictment arrives records. They also took chain and health insurer University scholar and au- week warned of Beijing's
at a delicate time in rela- steps to cover their tracks, Anthem. thor of the upcoming book aspirations of economic
tions between Washington the indictment says, wip- Such hacks "seem to delib- "The Hacker and the State." dominance, said Monday
and Beijing. Even as Presi- ing log files on a daily basis erately cast a wide net" so "This could be especially that the U.S. has for years
dent Donald Trump points and routing traffic through that Chinese intelligence useful for counterintelli- "witnessed China's vora-
to a preliminary trade pact dozens of servers in nearly analysts can get deep gence purposes, like track- cious appetite for the per-
with China as evidence of 20 countries. insight into the lives of ing American spies posted sonal data of Americans."q
his ability to work with the Besides stealing personal
Communist government, information, the hackers
other members of his ad- also made off with some
ministration have been of the company's sensitive
warning against cyberse- trade secrets, including
curity and surveillance risks database designs, law en-
posed by China, especially forcement officials said.
as the tech giant Huawei Equifax, headquartered
seeks to become part of in Atlanta, maintains a
new, high-speed 5G wire- massive repository of con-
less networks across the sumer information that it
globe. Experts and U.S. of- sells to businesses looking
ficials say the Equifax theft to verify identities or assess
is consistent with the Chi- creditworthiness. All told,
nese government's interest the indictment says, the
in accumulating as much company holds informa-
information about Ameri- tion on hundreds of millions
cans as possible. of people in America and
The data can be used by abroad,
China to target U.S. gov- The accused hackers are
ernment officials and or- based in China and none is
dinary citizens, including in custody. But U.S. officials
possible spies, and to find nonetheless hope criminal
weaknesses and vulnera- charges can be a deter-
bilities that can be exploit- rent to foreign hackers and
ed — such as for purposes a warning to other coun-
of blackmail. The FBI has tries that American law en-
not seen that happen yet forcement has the capa-
in this case, said Deputy bility to pinpoint individual
Director David Bowdich, culprits. Even so, while Chi-
though he said it "doesn't na and the U.S. committed
mean it will or will not hap- in 2015 to halt acts of cyber
pen in the future." espionage against each
"We have to be able to other, the Equifax intru-
recognize that as a coun- sion and others like it make