U.S. charges Chinese hackers and government officials in broad cybercrime campaign
NBC
The Facts
The US Department of Justice has indicted 12 Chinese nationals — including eight employees of Shanghai-based company i-Soon, two Ministry of Public Security officers, and two members of hacking group APT27 — for conducting extensive cyber espionage operations between 2016 and 2023.
i-Soon allegedly charged Chinese government agencies between $10K and $75K per successfully hacked email inbox, generating tens of millions in revenue while working with 43 bureaus across 31 provinces.
The hackers reportedly targeted various entities — including US government agencies, religious organizations, news outlets, defense contractors, and the US Treasury Department — accessed over 400 computers, and stole over 3K files.
The Spin
Anti-China narrative
The Chinese government has created a sophisticated hacker-for-hire ecosystem that provides plausible deniability while enabling widespread cyber espionage against US interests, threatening national security and compromising sensitive information across multiple sectors.
Pro-China narrative
The US accusations embody hypocritical double standards from the world's largest hacking empire, which itself conducts cyberattacks against Chinese high-tech enterprises through intelligence agencies, making these charges groundless and politically motivated.
