Justice Department accuses Chinese spies of hacking into dozens of US tech and industry giants

The Justice Department has unsealed a damning indictment that links an aggressive campaign to hack into U.S. tech and industry giants to spies working for the Chinese government.

The indictment, out Thursday, accuses China’s main intelligence agency — the Ministry of State Security — of hacking into dozens of tech companies and government departments, largely in an effort to steal intellectual property. Prosecutors said that the hackers were part of a Beijing-backed group, dubbed APT10, which various security companies had previously linked to China.

Zhu Hua and Zhang Shilong, both nationals and residents of China, were charged with three counts each of computer hacking, conspiracy to commit wire fraud and aggravated identity theft.

None of the companies were named, but noted that the hackers targeted and “stole hundreds of gigabytes of sensitive data” in aviation, space and satellite technology, manufacturing, pharmaceutical, oil and gas exploration, as well as communications and computer processor firms, and maritime technology companies.

Only the NASA Goddard Space Center and the space agency’s Jet Propulsion Lab were named in the filing.

The indictment also said that the hackers also stole personally identifiable information — including names, dates of birth, email addresses, salary information, and Social Security numbers — on more than 100,000 U.S. Navy personnel.

The hackers used spearphishing — or highly targeted phishing campaigns — to install malware using malicious Microsoft Word documents and steal data from...


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