Stealing data
US charges Chinese military officials with stealing data as tensions escalate
The US Justice Department indicted five Chinese military officers with stealing data from six US companies and unions on Monday, inaugurating a major escalation of tensions with China over economic spycraft.
Attorney general Eric Holder announced that the US for the first time would seek to bring officials of a foreign government to the US to face charges of infiltrating American computer networks to steal data beneficial to US trade competitors. The Justice Department even went as far as printing “wanted” posters.
The charges come as revelations about the scale of National Security Agency surveillance from whistleblower Edward Snowden indicate that at least some US surveillance carries an economic benefit.
“The range of trade secrets and other sensitive business information stolen in this case is significant and demands an aggressive response,” Holder said on Monday.
While suspicions about government sponsorship of corporate data theft have swirled around China for years, never before has the US formally accused officials from China, or any other government, of involvement.
Not only has attribution of online espionage long vexed investigators, the prospect of diplomatic or economic retaliation has also been an impediment to taking action. The Justice Department national security chief, John Carlin, and colleagues from the Federal Bureau of Investigation credited a years-long effort, and the willingness of companies to admit to a data breach, with “exposing the faces and the names behind the keyboards in Shanghai.”
(Published by The Guardian – May 19, 2014)