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The US government has announced indictments against a Chinese technology company and a number of alleged Chinese hackers that operated as its staff.
The company, known as Anxun Information Technology or i-Soon, has been described as “a key player in the PRC's hacker-for-hire ecosystem,” in the indictment, with the US alleging that the company and its personnel were behind a long-term espionage and hacking campaign against the US and other countries.
The US also indicted 10 individuals for their involvement in the operation, 8 of which were i-Soon staff and 2 being staff of the Chinese Ministry of Public Security.
The US has dubbed the threat group ‘AQUATIC PANDA’, following the naming theme it follows for other Chinese Advanced Persistent Threats (APTs).
According to the indictment, i-Soon operated as a third-party hacking service for Chinese intelligence agencies, and would charge between US$10,000 and US$75,000 per email inbox hacked, charging extra for analysing them.
Targets reportedly included the US Defence Intelligence Agency, the US Department of Commerce, the New York State Assembly, several news publications that had been critical of China and the foreign ministries of Taiwan, India, Indonesia and South Korea.
Additionally, the Manhattan District attorney’s office said that the group also targeted a number of religious groups and individuals, including a “large religious organisation in the United States.”
On top of the i-Soon indictments, the US also announced sanctions against a technology company in Shanghai - the Shanghai Heiying Information Technology founder.
The company and its founder, Zhou Shuai had allegedly been “"selling illegally exfiltrated data and [had accessed] compromised computer networks."
Additionally, Yin Kecheng who was identified as connected to the US Treasury data breach, had also acquired some of the data stolen by Zhou. Both men have also been indicted.
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