US slaps 2 Chinese intelligence officers with Cyber-espionage charges

December 21, 2018:

On Friday, US Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein has revealed that charges have been brought against two alleged Chinese hackers linked to China's Ministry of State Security, who are accused of infiltrating computer systems to obtain confidential data.

Rosenstein said that the two hackers, identified as Zhu Hua & Zhang Shilong, are suspected of "conspiracy to commit computer intrusions against dozens of companies in the US and the world."

The US on Thursday called on China to act responsibly in cyberspace after a "broad cyber attack campaign" against intellectual property and "sensitive" commercial data breach that have been detected in the US, Europe and Asia, Efe news reported.

In a joint statement, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo & Secretary of Homeland Security Kirstjen Nielsen expressed the Govt's "concern" about the activities they believe violated the 2015 cyber commitments b/w Beijing & Washington.

Both recalled that China undertook to prevent and not support the theft of intellectual property, including trade secrets or other commercial information, via the internet "with the intention of providing competitive advantages to companies or commercial sectors."

The statement however said that since at least 2014 Chinese hackers linked to their country's Ministry of State Security "have hacked multiple US & global managed service and cloud providers."

Pompeo and Nielsen stated these cyber-criminals have put at risk "the customer networks of suppliers, including global companies in at least 12 countries".

Both US officials stated, "Stability in cyberspace cannot be achieved if countries engage in irresponsible behaviour that undermines the national security and the economic prosperity of other countries."

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