The U.S. Justice Department Confirms Arrest of Alleged Chinese Contract Hacker
The U.S. Justice Department has recently confirmed the arrest of Chinese national Xu Zewei, who is accused of being a prolific contract hacker carrying out cyberattacks for China. Xu was apprehended in Italy at the request of U.S. prosecutors.
Together with another Chinese national Zhang Yu, who is currently evading authorities, Xu faces a nine-charge indictment for allegedly hacking and stealing critical COVID-19 research from U.S. universities in February 2020. According to the Department of Justice, Xu was affiliated with Shanghai Powerock Network, a company known for conducting hacking operations on behalf of the Chinese government.
In addition to the COVID-19 research theft, the accused hackers are also linked to a series of mass hacks targeting Microsoft Exchange servers that began in March 2021. The group, identified as Hafnium, infiltrated over 60,000 self-hosted Exchange servers primarily operated by small businesses in the U.S., resulting in the compromise of private company mailboxes and address books.
Following these incidents, Hafnium has reportedly launched a new hacking campaign under the name Silk Typhoon, which experts believe is focused on penetrating large corporations and government entities.
