The US Justice Department has indicted two Chinese nations who it believes are responsible for hacking hundreds of non-governmental organisations.
Li Xiaoyu, 34, and Dong Jiazhi, 33, are accused of stealing source code from software companies, information about drugs under development from pharmaceutical firms and weapons designs and testing data from defence contractors.
"China has now taken its place, alongside Russia, Iran, and North Korea, in that shameful club of nations that provide a safe haven for cyber criminals," Assistant Attorney General John Demers said.
The targeted foreign companies were not identified by name.
But according to the indictment they included a Dutch electronics firm, a Swedish online gaming company, a Lithuanian gaming company, a German software engineering firm, a Belgian engineering software company, an Australian defence contractor, a South Korean shipbuilding firm, a Spanish electronics and defence firm and a British artificial intelligence and cancer research company.
Li and Dong allegedly stole information from defence contractors regarding military satellite programs, military wireless networks and communications systems and microwave and laser systems.
The Australia defence contractor is referred to as "Victim 21" and was hacked on April 18 last year.
An Australian solar company, known as "Victim 23", was also targeted earlier this year.
Li and Dong, who are believed to be in China, acted in some instances "for their own personal gain" and in others for the benefit of China's Ministry of State Security, Mr Demers said at a press conference.
Coronavirus research targeted
The Justice Department said Li and Dong, who were classmates at an electrical engineering college in Chengdu, have been engaged in a hacking campaign for the past 10 years.
Most recently the pair targeted biotech companies in California, Maryland and Massachusetts for Coronavirus vaccine research, but the attempt did not appear to have actually compromised any COVID-19 research.
"The defendants probed for vulnerabilities in computer networks of companies developing COVID-19 vaccines, testing technology, and treatments," it said.
Dissidents targeted
The Justice Department said the hackers also targeted "non-governmental organisations, and individual dissidents, clergy, and democratic and human rights activists in the United States and abroad, including Hong Kong and China."
According to the indictment, they supplied the Ministry of State Security with passwords for personal email accounts belonging to Chinese dissidents, a Hong Kong community organiser, the pastor of a Christian church in Xi'an and a former Tiananmen Square protester.
Among the material allegedly stolen were emails between a dissident and the Dalai Lama's office.
The indictment was returned by a grand jury in the Eastern District of Washington state on July 7 but was only unsealed on Tuesday.
Li and Dong were charged with conspiracy to commit computer fraud, conspiracy to commit theft of trade secrets, wire fraud, unauthorised access of a computer and identity theft.
Assistant Attorney General John Demers answers questions during a news conference. Source: AP
China accused the United States last month of smearing Beijing following allegations that Chinese hackers were attempting to steal coronavirus research.
The claims have added fuel to tensions between the global superpowers, which have traded barbs over the origin of the pandemic that has killed more than 600,000 people since it emerged in China late last year.
"China expresses strong dissatisfaction and firm opposition to such smearing," foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said.
"Judging from past records, the US has carried out the largest cybertheft operations worldwide," Zhao said.
