News Desk
WASHINGTON — The United States on Wednesday unsealed indictments against 12 Chinese nationals, including mercenary hackers, law enforcement officers, and employees of a private hacking company, accusing them of conducting sweeping cyberespionage campaigns on behalf of Beijing. The targets, according to the Justice Department, included U.S. government agencies, news organizations, universities, and Chinese dissidents abroad.
The charges, which expose the scale and structure of China’s state-backed hacking apparatus, come amid growing warnings from U.S. officials about Beijing’s increasingly sophisticated cyber intrusions. Among the victims of the indicted hackers was the U.S. Treasury Department, which disclosed a breach late last year by Chinese operatives in what it described as a “major cybersecurity incident.”
One indictment names top executives of a Shanghai-based private hacking firm known as I-Soon, which prosecutors say operated as a de facto intelligence arm of the Chinese government. Founded in 2010 by Wu Haibo, a member of China’s first hacktivist collective, Green Army, the company orchestrated cyberattacks on a broad array of targets, including dissidents, religious organizations, and media outlets critical of the Chinese Communist Party.
Among the victims, the indictment states, was a U.S.-based newspaper known for its coverage of China. Other breaches extended to individual critics of Beijing living in the United States, the Defense Intelligence Agency, and an American research university.
Leaked I-Soon documents previously analyzed by the Associated Press had indicated the firm’s main targets were foreign governments, including India, Taiwan, and Mongolia. The new indictment, however, provides fresh evidence that U.S. institutions were also in the crosshairs.
While some hacking assignments were directed by China’s Ministry of Public Security—two law enforcement officers were among those charged—others were reportedly carried out independently, with I-Soon hackers later selling stolen data to the government. According to prosecutors, the firm charged Chinese authorities between $10,000 and $75,000 per hacked email inbox.
The Chinese government has long denied involvement in cyber intrusions, routinely dismissing U.S. allegations as baseless. On Wednesday, Liu Pengyu, a spokesperson for the Chinese Embassy in Washington, called the accusations a “smear” and urged officials to refrain from making “groundless speculation and accusations.”
The Justice Department also announced a separate indictment against two additional Chinese hackers, accusing them of running a for-profit cyber operation that targeted U.S. technology companies, defense contractors, and think tanks.
The charges offer a rare glimpse into the murky world of China’s cyberespionage industry, where private firms like I-Soon operate in a gray zone—sometimes under direct government orders, other times freelancing in pursuit of profit.
U.S. officials have repeatedly sounded the alarm about China’s expanding cyber capabilities. In a recent intelligence assessment, Washington warned that Beijing is developing sophisticated hacking tools that could compromise critical American infrastructure in the event of a future crisis.
Phone numbers linked to I-Soon rang unanswered on Wednesday, and the company did not respond to media requests for comment. Agencies.
