U.S. Justice Department Announces Arrest of Prolific Chinese State-Sponsored Contract Hacker


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:

  • Scammers are targeting World Cup fans

    May 16, 2026

    We’re less than a month away from the biggest sporting event of the year, the FIFA World Cup, and scammers are already busy stealing money, passwords, and other sensitive data from fans and visitors, experts have warned. Kaspersky has published a breakdown of the different scam techniques cybercriminals are using to target football fans as they ...

  • Hackers have breached tank readers at US gas stations

    May 15, 2026

    US officials suspect Iranian hackers are behind a series of breaches of systems that monitor the amount of fuel in storage tanks serving gas stations in multiple states, according to multiple sources briefed on the activity. The hackers responsible have exploited automatic tank gauge (ATG) systems that were sitting online and unprotected by passwords, allowing them in some cases ...

  • ShinyHunters: Cyber Criminal Group Attacks Learning Management System

    May 15, 2026

    The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is providing this Public Service Announcement (PSA) to warn of potential future impacts related to a cyber-attack that affected an online Learning Management System (LMS), resulting in an interruption of service to educational institutions and students across the country. The LMS platform is now fully operational. ShinyHunters (SH) — which ...

  • German Citizen Charged with Laundering Funds Linked to Prominent Darknet Marketplace “Dream Market”

    May 13, 2026

    Owe Martin Andresen, the suspected main administrator of Dream Market, one of the largest illicit darknet marketplaces before its 2019 shutdown, has been indicted for an alleged scheme to launder funds from Dream Market’s administrator accounts. Andresen was arrested last week in Germany on parallel charges brought by the German government. “Andresen allegedly channeled commissions earned ...

  • Disgraced US gov software contractor found guilty of database destruction

    May 8, 2026

    A Virginia man, Sohaib Akhter, faces decades in prison after a jury convicted him of being involved in a scheme to delete approximately 96 databases containing US government data. The events of the case transpired around two weeks before the twin brothers allegedly involved were fired from their jobs at a software supplier to the US ...

  • Poland says hackers breached water treatment plants, and the US is facing the same threat

    May 8, 2026

    Poland’s intelligence service said it detected attacks on five water treatment plants where hackers could have taken control of the industrial equipment inside, including, in the worst case, tampering with the safety of the water supply. The story is relevant beyond Poland’s borders: U.S. water infrastructure has faced similar threats in recent years. In 2021, a ...