Today, both the United States Department of Justice and the UK authorities have accused China of committing cyber warfare, and two individuals in particular have been charged for their alleged crimes.
The United States Depart of Justice has indicted Chinese nationals Zhang Shilong and Zhu Hua for their crimes. The two are associated with a Chinese hacking group known as APT 10 (Advanced Persistent Threat 10) which has ties to the Ministry of State Security. The two have been accused of committing cyber attacks against western companies and agencies for over a decade, with their crimes resulting in an unknown amount of data stolen.
Zhang Shilong and Zhu Hua, both of whom go by numerous code names, allegedly hacked computers in more than a dozen countries and their actions may have compromised the security of the companies and nations that they attacked. They are also being accused of stealing various technologies throughout the years that they were active.
Government officials, as well as federal agencies and figures within the military, have warned against using Chinese technology made by Huawei and ZTE. Numerous countries, such as the US, Australia, the UK, and New Zealand, have been banning the Chinese tech giants due to suspicions that they are arms of the Chinese government and would pose security risks. China is also being fingered as the culprit behind the four-year hack of the Marriott, which compromised the data and private information of over half a billion people.
If these revelations are proven to be accurate, then it would mean that China has broken the promise it made with the U.S back in 2015 to cease cyber attacks on the country. The already sour relationship between China and the US is sure to worsen, and severe punishment is expected to be meted out. If convicted of the crimes they are accused of, Zhang Shilong and Zhu Hua can face up to 27 years in prison.
