China arrested hackers responding to a US Government request

For the first time, hackers have been arrested in China by law enforcement at the behest of the US government. Is it true cooperation?

It is probably the first time that Chinese authorities have arrested hackers in China following a request of the US Government.

Two weeks, before the visit of the Chinese President Xi Jinping in the U.S., the Chinese authorities
took an unprecedented step to defuse tensions with the US that have threatened economic sanctions in response to the recent wave of cyber attacks against US companies and organizations.
The news was reported by anonymous U.S. officials to the Washington Post.

The hackers were arrested on charges of cyber espionage on U.S. firms, the criminals have stolen sensitive data from the victims to resell them to Chinese companies.

At the moment, there is no publicly available information related to the identity of the hackers and what punishments they face.

“The arrests come amid signs of a potential change in the power balance between the U.S. and Chinese governments on commercial cyber espionage, one of the most fraught issues between the two countries. ” states the Washington Post.

The hackers were included in a list of the hackers, drawn up by the US intelligence and law enforcement agencies, the United States want to arrest.

“We need to know that you’re serious,” was the way one individual familiar with the matter described the message. “So we gave them a list, and we said, ‘Look, here’s these guys. Round them up.’”

China and US agreed to stop any mutual hacking activity, including mutual corporate espionage and US authorities hope that the arrests are a first step of the announced cooperation.

Which is the opinion of the experts?

“I bet they nabbed ‘contractors,’ not PLA/MSS*,” said FireEye/Mandiant strategist Richard Bejtlich. “If CN gov arrested [PLA Unit] 61398 members, CN gov will likely claim they were rogue actors. Fits w/anti-corruption campaign, but bad for PLA morale.”

Let’s see what will happen in the next months.

Pierluigi Paganini

(Security Affairs – China, hacking)

Pierluigi Paganini

Pierluigi Paganini is member of the ENISA (European Union Agency for Network and Information Security) Threat Landscape Stakeholder Group and Cyber G7 Group, he is also a Security Evangelist, Security Analyst and Freelance Writer. Editor-in-Chief at "Cyber Defense Magazine", Pierluigi is a cyber security expert with over 20 years experience in the field, he is Certified Ethical Hacker at EC Council in London. The passion for writing and a strong belief that security is founded on sharing and awareness led Pierluigi to find the security blog "Security Affairs" recently named a Top National Security Resource for US. Pierluigi is a member of the "The Hacker News" team and he is a writer for some major publications in the field such as Cyber War Zone, ICTTF, Infosec Island, Infosec Institute, The Hacker News Magazine and for many other Security magazines. Author of the Books "The Deep Dark Web" and “Digital Virtual Currency and Bitcoin”.

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