Ten Chinese Agents Charged with Hacking Aviation Companies

The Justice Department unsealed federal charges Tuesday against 10 Chinese agents, including intelligence officers, accused of running a five-year hacking operation to steal technology from American aviation companies. The Justice Department promised more indictments will follow.

“Officials described the case as part of a push by the Trump administration to highlight what U.S. authorities say are China’s continuing efforts to steal information from American and European companies through cyber attacks and on-the-ground recruiting,” the Wall Street Journal reported.

“This is just the beginning. Together with our federal partners, we will redouble our efforts to safeguard America’s ingenuity and investment,” Assistant Attorney General John Demers promised.

The unsealed indictment describes a plot spearheaded by the Jiangsu Province Ministry of State Security (JSSD), headquartered in Nanjing, China, to steal “sensitive commercial technological, aviation, and aerospace data by hacking into computers in the United States and abroad.”

The operation was specifically interested in a commercial jet turbofan engine being developed by a partnership between American and French companies not identified in the indictment. A Chinese state-owned company was working on a similar design at the time.

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