China’s Ministry of State Security Directed the Theft of COVID-19 Research and the Exploitation of Microsoft Exchange Server Vulnerabilities, Known Publicly as the Indiscriminate ‘HAFNIUM’ Intrusion Campaign The Justice Department announced today that Xu Zewei (徐泽伟), 33, of the People’s Republic of China was arrested on July 3 in Italy at the request of the United States.
Xu and his co-defendant, PRC national Zhang Yu (张宇), 44, are charged in a nine-count indictment, unsealed today in the Southern District of Texas, for their involvement in computer intrusions between February 2020 and June 2021, including the indiscriminate HAFNIUM computer intrusion campaign that compromised thousands of computers worldwide, including in the United States. Xu was arrested in Milan, Italy, and will face extradition proceedings.
Read more…
Source: U.S. Department of Justice
Sign up for the Cyber Security Review Newsletter
The latest cyber secnews and insights delivered right to your inbox.
Related:
- Kaspersky dismisses claims Coruna iPhone exploit kit is connected to NSA-linked operation
March 4, 2026
Russian cybersecurity outfit Kaspersky is waving away claims that an iPhone exploit kit recently uncovered by Google was developed by the same people who were behind a group of zero-days that allegedly compromised thousands of Russian diplomats in a 2023 campaign. After Google’s Threat Intelligence Group (GTIG) published its findings on the Coruna exploit kit this ...
- Major data leak forum dismantled in global action against cybercrime forum
March 4, 2026
A major online forum for stolen data has been dismantled following an international operation coordinated by Europol. The forum, known as LeakBase, had established itself as a central hub in the cybercrime ecosystem, specialising in the trade of leaked databases and so-called “stealer logs” – archives of stolen credentials harvested through infostealer malware. Accessible on the ...
- Hacktivists may have just cracked open ICE and exposed over 6,000 companies working with the DHS
March 3, 2026
A hacktivist group has claimed to have broken into systems belonging to the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and exposed sensitive files online. The group, with the self-awarded name “The Department of Peace”, stole data from the Office of Industry Partnership that contained contracts between DHS, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), and over 6,000 private ...
- Amazon Web Services data centres in the Middle East hit by Iran strikes
March 3, 2026
Amazon Inc has said two Amazon Web Services data centres in the United Arab Emirates were hit by drone strikes, with another facility in Bahrain damaged by a nearby attack, as Iran retaliated to the strikes by the US and Israel. AWS said the strikes caused “structural damage” and “disrupted power” to its infrastructure. It warned ...
- Hacked traffic cams and hijacked TVs: How cyber operations supported the war against Iran
March 3, 2026
On Saturday, U.S. and Israeli jets began a bombing campaign against Iran, killing its supreme leader Ali Khamenei and several senior government officials. The attacks also hit military and civilian targets all across the country, including a girls’ school, where at least 168 children and adults were killed. After a few days of conflict, multiple reports, ...
- LexisNexis hacked, 2 GB of structured data allegedly exposed
March 3, 2026
The hacker group FulcrumSec is taking responsibility for a data breach of information from LexisNexis. The group claims to have hacked into the LexisNexis servers on Feb. 24. It posted about the hack and alleged it got access to over 2 gigabytes of structured data. “We exfiltrated 2.04 GB of structured data from LexisNexis AWS infrastructure ...
