WASHINGTON, Feb 11 (NNN-AGENCIES) — The United States has charged four Chinese military hackers in the 2017 breach of the Equifax credit reporting agency that affected nearly 150 million American citizens, Attorney General William Barr said.
“This was a deliberate and sweeping intrusion into the private information of the American people,” Barr said in announcing the indictments of four members of the Chinese Liberation Army in connection with one of the largest data breaches in U.S. history.
The nine-count indictment names Wu Zhiyong, Wang Qian, Xu Ke and Liu Lei as members of the PLA’s 54th Research Institute, a component of the Chinese military. They are each charged with three counts of conspiracy to commit computer fraud, economic espionage and wire fraud.
The Chinese Embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The announcement is the latest in an aggressive campaign by American authorities to root out Chinese espionage operations in the United States. Since turning the spotlight on China in 2018, the U.S. has snared a growing group of Chinese government officials, business people, and academics pursuing American secrets.
Roughly 147 million people had information, including Social Security numbers, birth dates and driver’s license data, compromised by the Equifax breach.
The hackers spent weeks in the Equifax system, breaking into computer networks, stealing company secrets and personal data. The hackers routed traffic through approximately 34 servers located in nearly 20 countries to obfuscate their true location.
In the aftermath of Equifax attack, executives were hauled before Congress, the company changed its leadership, and Equifax faced a flurry of lawsuits and investigations.
Last year, the Federal Trade Commission, along with other federal and state authorities and private plaintiffs, agreed a settlement that made Equifax liable for almost $800m.
At the time, Joseph Simons, chairman of the FTC, said the company had “failed to take basic steps” that could have prevented the intrusion into Equifax’s databases.
Officials on Monday praised Equifax for its co-operation with their investigation.
Mark Begor, Equifax’s chief executive, said in a statement that the company was grateful for federal investigators’ efforts. “The attack on Equifax was an attack on US consumers as well as the United States,” he said.
The indictments are only the second time the US has charged Chinese military hackers, according to David Bowdich, deputy director of the FBI.
He added that the FBI had no evidence so far that China had used the stolen data against Americans.
