Hacking-for-hire scheme: US court indicts 12 Chinese nationals

According to court documents, China's Ministry of Public Security and Ministry of State Security used a network of private companies and hackers-for-hire to steal information and help locate dissidents and critics throughout the world.

"Today's announcements reveal that the Chinese Ministry of Public Security has been paying hackers-for-hire to inflict digital harm on Americans who criticize the Chinese Communist Party (CCP)," said Assistant Director Bryan Vorndran of the FBI's Cyber Division in a statement.

The suspects include two officers in China's Ministry of Public Security, eight employees of a company known as i-Soon, and two members of a group known as Advanced Persistent Threat 27 (APT27).

A spokesperson for the Chinese Embassy in Washington, Liu Pengyu, told The Associated Press Wednesday that the allegations were a "smear" and said, "We hope that relevant parties will adopt a professional and responsible attitude and base their characterization of cyber incidents on sufficient evidence rather than groundless speculation and accusations."

All of those indicted are at large, and the Justice Department is offering a reward of up to $10 million for information about the MPS officers and i-Soon, the Chinese company that employed most of the hackers.

The company is accused of selling stolen information "to China's intelligence and security services to suppress free speech and democratic processes worldwide, and target groups deemed a threat to the Chinese government," according to a news release from the FBI.

i-Soon also conducted computer intrusions on its own initiative, charging "the MSS and MPS equivalent to between approximately $10,000 and $75,000 for each email inbox it successfully hacked," the indictment said.

The company also provided training in hacking skills to the government agencies.

Among the group's targets were a large religious organization critical of the Chinese government that previously sent missionaries to China, and a group that promoted human rights and religious freedom in China.

The New York Assembly and multiple news organizations in the United States were targeted, including those that have opposed the Communist Party of China or delivered uncensored news to China.

Foreign targets included a religious leader, a Hong Kong newspaper and the foreign ministries of Taiwan, India, South Korea, and Indonesia, according to the Justice Department release.

Separate indictments were issued against the two men connected to APT27, Zhou Shuai and Yin Kecheng, "for their involvement in the multi-year, for-profit computer intrusion campaigns dating back, in the case of Yin, to 2013," the Justice Department release stated.

The State Department announced a reward of up to $2 million for information leading to the arrest of Zhou and Yin. They are accused of hacking numerous "U.S.-based technology companies, think tanks, law firms, defense contractors, local governments, health care systems, and universities, leaving behind them a wake of millions of dollars in damages," the release stated.

Yin is accused in a U.S. Treasury Department hack between September and December 2024.

The two face several charges that include computer network conspiracy, wire fraud, aggravated identity theft and money laundering.

"As evidenced by today's and previous announcements, China offers safe harbor for private sector companies that conduct malicious cyber activity against the United States and its partners," State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce said in a statement.

The indictments were the result of a joint investigation by the Justice Department, FBI, Naval Criminal Investigative Service and Departments of State and the Treasury.