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:
- CISA: Advanced Persistent Threat Actors Targeting U.S. Think Tanks
December 1, 2020
The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) have observed persistent continued cyber intrusions by advanced persistent threat (APT) actors targeting U.S. think tanks. This malicious activity is often, but not exclusively, directed at individuals and organizations that focus on international affairs or national security policy. The following guidance ...
- FINRA Alerts Firms to Phishing Email Using Invest-FINRA.org Domain Name
November 30, 2020
FINRA warns member firms of an ongoing phishing campaign that involves fraudulent emails that include the domain “@invest-finra.org”. FINRA recommends that anyone who clicked on any link or image in the email immediately notify the appropriate individuals in their firm of the incident. The domain of “invest-finra.org” is not connected to FINRA and firms should delete ...
- FBI: Hackers stole source code from US government agencies and private companies
November 7, 2020
The Federal Bureau of Investigation has sent out a security alert warning that threat actors are abusing misconfigured SonarQube applications to access and steal source code repositories from US government agencies and private businesses. Intrusions have taken place since at least April 2020, the FBI said in an alert sent out last month and made public ...
- US, Brazilian law enforcement seize $24 million in cryptocurrency generated through online fraud
November 5, 2020
US and Brazilian authorities have seized $24 million in cryptocurrency connected to an online scheme that allegedly defrauded “tens of thousands” of investors. Upon request from the government of Brazil, US law enforcement participated in “Operation Egypto,” a Brazilian federal investigation into the suspected scam, the US Department of Justice (DoJ) said on Wednesday. Read more… Source: ZDNet
- QBot phishing lures victims using US election interference emails
November 4, 2020
The Qbot botnet is now spewing U.S. election-themed phishing emails used to infect victims with malicious payloads designed to harvest user data and emails for use in future campaigns. Qbot (aka Qakbot, Pinkslipbot, and Quakbot) is a banking trojan with worm features actively used since at least 2009 to steal financial data and ...
- Abandoned Hunter Biden’s laptop contained phone numbers for the Clintons, Secret Service officers and most of the Obama cabinet
November 1, 2020
The son of the man expected by many to be America’s next President abandoned a laptop containing a treasure trove of top-secret material, including his father’s private emails and mobile phone numbers, The Mail on Sunday can reveal. In an astonishing lapse, Hunter Biden chose to protect his MacBook Pro computer – crammed with what an ...