The United States on Wednesday charged 12 alleged state-backed Chinese hackers and state officials with offenses related to accessing the email accounts of Chinese dissidents and foreign governments agencies, including the U.S. Department of the Treasury. It also announced rewards totaling US$10 million for information leading to their capture, with all of the accused remaining at-large.
A statement from the Department of Justice alleged that the hackers were part of a Chinese state-backed program that used freelance and private hackers to target Chinese dissidents living abroad and foreign government employees, including at the U.S. Treasury Department. The program “employed an extensive network of private companies and contractors in China to hack and steal information in a manner that obscured” the Chinese government’s role, the statement said.