Chinese man charged with stealing COVID-19 research
Houston – A Chinese national was arrested for suspicion of hacking on several IT systems from American universities to steal research related to COVID-19, authorities announced on Tuesday.
Xu Zewei is charged in an indictment of nine charges in the South Texas District for his presumed involvement in computer intrusions between February 2020 and June 2021. Another Chinese national, Zhang Yu, was also charged in the indictment.
Xu was arrested Thursday in Italy and awaited extradition with the American authorities, said Zhang was released.
XU and others are accused of targeting and hacking several universities, immunologists and virologists based in the United States conducting research on vaccines, processing and COVID-19 tests, according to court documents.
“The hacking of these American universities is not only a violation of intellectual property rights. It is an attack on American scientific innovation,” said Nicholas J. Ganjei, American lawyer for the South Texas District, at a press conference.
The authorities refused to appoint the targeted universities but said that two were located in the South Texas district.
The authorities allege that the officers of the Chinese Ministry of the Ministry of Security of States, or MSS, ordered XU and others to carry out hacking.
A spokesman for the Chinese embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to an email asking for comments.
The authorities allege that Xu and Zhang were part of a group known as Hafnium, which targeted more than 60,000 American entities, successfully victimizing more than 12,700 in order to steal sensitive information. One of the targeted people was a law firm in offices around the world, including in Washington, DC
The accusations against XU include wire fraud, obtaining information by unauthorized access to protected computers and aggravated identity theft. The accusations of thread fraud have sentences of up to 20 years in prison.
Tuesday’s announcement comes after the Ministry of Justice earlier this month said that two Chinese nationals had been accused of spying in the United States on behalf of Beijing, including taking photos of a naval base.
