A federal grand jury has returned an indictment charging four members of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) with hacking into the computer systems of the credit reporting agency Equifax and stealing Americans’ personal data and Equifax’s valuable trade secrets.
The nine-count indictment alleges that Wu Zhiyong, Wang Qian, Xu Ke and Liu Lei were members of the PLA’s 54th Research Institute, a component of the Chinese military. They allegedly conspired with each other to hack into Equifax’s computer networks, maintain unauthorized access to those computers, and steal sensitive, personally identifiable information of approximately 145 million American victims.
The 2017 breach affected roughly 145 million people, with the hackers successfully stealing names, Social Security numbers and other personal information stored in the company's databases.
The four are also accused of stealing the company's trade secrets, law enforcement officials said.
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“This was a deliberate and sweeping intrusion into the private information of the American people,” said Attorney General William Barr, who made the announcement. “Today, we hold PLA hackers accountable for their criminal actions, and we remind the Chinese government that we have the capability to remove the Internet’s cloak of anonymity and find the hackers that nation repeatedly deploys against us.”
The criminal charges were filed in federal court in Atlanta, where the company is based.
“The indictment exposes the Chinese military’s effort to collect sensitive information of Americans on an unprecedented scale and steal proprietary information for the benefit of the Chinese government,” said U.S. Attorney Byung “BJay” Pak of the Northern District of Georgia. “With this announcement, we underscore our resolve to protect our citizens from state-sponsored cyber threats and to unmask those who perpetrate unlawful attacks.
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“These charges were made possible because Equifax worked closely, and early, with our dedicated law enforcement team to hold the perpetrators accountable. As corporations like Equifax continue to be targeted by cyber attacks, this investigation illustrates the critical importance of public-private collaboration to combat the most sophisticated cyber threats.”
The case is one of several the Justice Department has brought over the years against members of the PLA. The Obama administration in 2014 charged five Chinese military hackers with breaking into the networks of major American corporations to siphon trade secrets.
The indictment, which details efforts the hackers took to cover their tracks, includes charges of conspiracy to commit computer fraud, conspiracy to commit economic espionage and conspiracy to commit wire fraud.
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