The U.S. Justice Department released the information below:
Xu
Zewei (徐泽伟), 34, of the People’s Republic of China
was extradited to the United States this weekend and appeared today in U.S.
District Court in Houston on a nine-count
indictment related to his involvement in computer intrusions
between February 2020 and June 2021. Certain of those computer intrusions
allegedly are part of the HAFNIUM computer intrusion campaign that compromised
thousands of computers worldwide, including in the United States. Other
intrusions targeted U.S. COVID-19 research during the height of the pandemic.
Xu is charged along with Zhang Yu (张宇), 44, who is also a PRC national.
According to
court documents, officers of the PRC’s Ministry of State Security’s (MSS)
Shanghai State Security Bureau (SSSB) directed Xu to conduct this hacking. The
MSS and SSSB are PRC intelligence services responsible for PRC’s domestic
counterintelligence, non-military foreign intelligence, and aspects of the
PRC’s political and domestic security. When Xu conducted the computer
intrusions, he allegedly worked for a company named Shanghai Powerock Network
Co. Ltd. (Powerock). Powerock was one of many “enabling” companies in the PRC
that conducted hacking for the PRC government.
“The United
States is committed to pursuing hackers who steal information from U.S.
businesses and universities and threaten our cybersecurity,” said Assistant
Attorney General for National Security John A. Eisenberg. “I commend the
prosecutors and investigators who have worked hard and sought justice for years
in this investigation, and we look forward to proving our case in court.”
“Today, Xu Zewei
will stand in a federal courtroom to answer for crimes that struck at the heart
of American science and security — allegedly stealing COVID-19 research from
our universities when the world needed it most,” said Acting U.S. Attorney John
G.E. Marck for the Southern District of Texas. “We have pursued this moment
across years and continents, and the message this office sends today is the
same one we sent when we first unsealed this indictment: we will work to
protect the American people.”
“The extradition
of Xu Zewei demonstrates the FBI's reach extends well beyond U.S. borders,”
said Assistant Director Brett Leatherman of the FBI's Cyber Division. “Xu will
now answer for his alleged role in HAFNIUM, a group responsible for a vast
intrusion campaign directed by China's Ministry of State Security that
compromised more than 12,700 U.S. organizations. He is one of many contractors
the Chinese government uses to obscure its hand in cyber operations, and others
who do the same face the same risk. The FBI thanks our Italian law enforcement
colleagues, especially the Polizia Postale, whose partnership led to Xu's
arrest in Milan and his extradition to the United States.”
According to court documents, in early 2020, Xu and his co-conspirators hacked and otherwise targeted U.S.-based universities, immunologists, and virologists conducting research into COVID‑19 vaccines, treatment, and testing. Xu and others reported their activities to officers in the SSSB who were supervising and directing the hacking activities. For example, on or about Feb. 19, 2020, Xu provided an SSSB officer with confirmation that he had compromised the network of a research university located in the Southern District of Texas. On or about Feb. 22, 2020, the SSSB officer directed Xu to target and access specific email accounts (mailboxes) belonging to virologists and immunologists engaged in COVID-19 research for the university. Xu later confirmed for the SSSB officer that he acquired the contents of the researchers’ mailboxes.
You can read the rest of the press release via the link below:
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