Page 3 - Aruba-today-17 Sept 2020

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U.S. NEWS Thursday 17 sepTember 2020
U.S. charges 5 Chinese citizens in global hacking campaign

By ERIC TUCKER ment's No. 2 official, criti-
Associated Press cized the Chinese govern-
WASHINGTON (AP) — The ment for what he said was
Justice Department has a failure to disrupt hacking
charged five Chinese citi- crimes and to hold hackers
zens with hacks targeting accountable.
more than 100 compa- "Ideally, I would be thank-
nies and institutions in the ing Chinese law enforce-
United States and abroad, ment authorities for their
including social media and cooperation in the matter
video game companies as and the five Chinese hack-
well as universities and tele- ers would now be in cus-
communications providers, tody awaiting trial," Rosen
officials said Wednesday. said. "Unfortunately, the re-
The five defendants re- cord of recent years tells us
main fugitives, but pros- that the Chinese Commu-
ecutors say two Malaysian nist Party has a demonstrat-
businessmen charged with ed history of choosing a
conspiring with the alleged different path, that of mak-
hackers to profit off the at- ing China safe for their own
tacks on the billion-dollar cyber criminals, so long as
video game industry were they help with its goals of
arrested in Malaysia this Acting U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Michael R. Sherwin speaks, Wednesday, Sept. 16, stealing intellectual prop-
week and now face extra- 2020 at the Justice Department in Washington. erty and stifling freedom."
dition proceedings. Associated Press There was no immediate
The indictments are part response Wednesday to
of a broader effort by the In unsealing three related not directly link the hack- connection with the gov- an email seeking comment
Trump administration to indictments, officials laid ers to the Chinese govern- ernment, Sherwin said. from the Chinese Embassy
call out cybercrimes by out a wide-ranging hack- ment. But officials said the In addition, one of the five in Washington.
China. In July, prosecutors ing scheme targeting a va- hackers were probably defendants told a col- The Justice Department
accused hackers of work- riety of business sectors and serving as proxies for Beijing league that he was very also announced that it
ing with the Chinese gov- academia and carried out because some of the tar- close to the Chinese Min- had seized hundreds of
ernment to target compa- by a China-based group gets, including pro-democ- istry of State Security and accounts, servers and do-
nies developing vaccines known as APT41. That racy activists and students would be protected "unless main names used by the
for the coronavirus and of group has been tracked by at a Taiwan university, were something very big hap- defendants and that it had
stealing hundreds of mil- the cybersecurity firm Man- in line with government in- pens," and also agreed not worked with Microsoft and
lions of dollars worth of diant Threat Intelligence, terests and didn't appear to go after domestic tar- other private sector com-
intellectual property and which described the hack- to be about scoring a prof- gets in China, said Deputy panies to deny the hackers
trade secrets from compa- ers as prolific and success- it. Attorney General Jeffrey continued access to tools,
nies across the world. ful at blending criminal and "A hacker for profit is not Rosen. accounts and hacking in-
Though those allegations espionage operations. going to hack a pro-de- But some of the conduct frastructure.
were tailored to the pan- The hackers relied on a mocracy group," said act- was clearly profit driven, Also Wednesday, the de-
demic, the charges an- series of tactics, including ing U.S. Attorney Michael officials said. Two of the partment announced
nounced Wednesday attacks in which they man- Sherwin of the District of Chinese defendants, for in- charges against two Iranian
— and the range of vic- aged to compromise the Columbia, where the cases stance, were charged with nationals accused of steal-
tims identified — were sig- networks of software pro- were filed. Those targets, in- breaking into video game ing hundreds of terabytes
nificantly broader and in- viders, modify the source cluding some that bear the companies and obtaining of data in a hacking cam-
volved attacks done both code and conduct further "hallmark" of conventional digital currency that was paign targeting institutions
for monetary gain but also attacks on the companies' espionage, point to the then sold for profit on the — and perceived enemies
more conventional espio- customers. conclusion that the hack- black market, officials said. of Iran — in the U.S., Europe
nage purposes. The Justice Department did ers had at least an indirect Rosen, the Justice Depart- and the Middle East.q

Native American groups sue South Dakota over voting rights

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) — A Native American and Four Directions, a voting rights group, they did not fix it. Apparently they did not see
voting rights group and two tribes on Wednes- brought the lawsuit against the South Dakota the disenfranchisement of Native voters and
day filed a federal lawsuit against South Dako- Secretary of State, Department of Public Safe- the silencing of Native voices as an important
ta state agencies, alleging that the state is vio- ty, Department of Social issue. We do."
lating federal law by failing to offer adequate Services and Department of Labor and Regu- Attorneys for the tribes and Four Directions
voter registration services. lation.The complaint in the lawsuit says that the wrote to Secretary of State Steve Barnett in
The lawsuit alleges that the state's agencies number of voter registration applications has May, alerting them to the problems with voter
didn't provide ample opportunities to register "precipitously declined" since 2004. Four Direc- registration. Barnett's office replied, according
to vote or update voter registration informa- tions also documented instances in which De- to the complaint. But the group alleges that
tion at places like motor vehicle and public as- partment of Social Services offices near reser- Barnett's office did not specify how or when
sistance offices in areas near Native American vations failed to help people register to vote or the problems would be fixed.
reservations. Federal law requires the agencies update their voter registration. The Secretary of State's office did not immedi-
to help people register to vote at those kinds Jacqueline De León, a staff attorney with the ately respond to a request for comment.
of offices, including ones that provide public Native American Rights Fund, which is repre- Representatives for the three other agencies
assistance or serve people with disabilities. senting the two tribes, said in a statement, "We named in the lawsuit said they would not be
The Oglala Sioux Tribe, the Rosebud Sioux Tribe told the state that there was a problem, but commenting because it is a legal matter.q