“As set forth in the charging documents, some of these criminal actors believed their association with the PRC provided them free license to hack and steal across the globe. This scheme also contained a new and troubling cyber-criminal component, the targeting and utilization of gaming platforms to both defraud video game companies and launder illicit proceeds.”
The list of victims is extensive. The hackers have been linked to computer crimes that have impacted over 100 companies, individuals, and organizations in the United States, South Korea, Singapore, Japan, Australia, and many other countries around the world.
The defendants allegedly hacked software development companies, computer hardware manufacturers, telecommunications providers, social media companies, video game companies, non-profit organizations, universities, think tanks, and foreign governments, as well as pro-democracy politicians and activists in Hong Kong.
Five of the defendants are citizens of the People’s Republic of China (PRC), where they are living as fugitives. And one of the PRC hackers has allegedly boasted of his connections to the Chinese Ministry of State Security.
The DOJ is determined to neutralize malicious nation-state cyber activity
The computer crimes have been tracked using the threat labels Apt41 hackers, Barium, Winnti, Wicked Panda, and Wicked Spider. These labels were used in the theft of source code, software code signing certificates, customer account data, and valuable business information.
