Chinese hacker arrested for hacking into computers of US companies and Universities while allegedly working for Chinese technology company
Xu Zewei of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) was extradited to the United States and appeared recently in US District Court in Houston on a nine-count indictment related to his involvement in computer intrusions between February 2020 and June 2021. Certain of those computer intrusions allegedly are part of the HAFNIUM computer intrusion campaign that compromised thousands of computers worldwide, including in the United States. Other intrusions targeted U.S. COVID-19 research during the height of the pandemic. Xu is charged along with Zhang Yu, who is also a Chinese national.
According to court documents, officers of the PRC’s Ministry of State Security’s (MSS) Shanghai State Security Bureau (SSSB) directed Xu to conduct this hacking.
