China starts arresting some of its hackers

Oct 10, 2015 14:02 GMT  ·  By

Surprisingly, the US and Chinese anti-cyber-espionage agreement signed at the end of September is actually yielding some results, and it's not just another useless piece of paper on which mass media agencies can report.

According to reports from multiple US newspapers, the US has already started making requests to the Chinese government, who for the first time in its history is also paying close attention.

US makes its first official appeal to Chinese authorities based on the anti-spying pact

As the Financial Times is reporting, the US has publicly named three Chinese companies who benefited from a series of hacking incidents from 2014.

These incidents are linked to five Chinese military officers who last year were officially indicted by the US Department of Justice (DoJ).

The officers, Wang Dong, Sun Kailiang, Wen Xinyu, Huang Zhenyu, and Gu Chunhui, according to US officials, have engaged in cyber-espionage against multiple US companies activating in the energy and metal production sectors.

The data they stole was later linked to the activities and products of three Chinese companies, Chinalco, Baosteel, and SNPTC, who are China's biggest producers of lightweight metals, iron & steel, and nuclear power.

The US government is now giving Chinese authorities an informal warning to start legal actions against the people and companies involved in those hacks, otherwise expect economic sanctions.

China already arrested a group of hackers at the US' request

Besides this, the Washington Post is also reporting on the arrest of a group of hackers that carried out attacks against US targets.

The hackers were not named, and they were arrested even before the US and China signed their anti-spying pact, as a sign of good faith.

No details were given if the hackers were part of the Chinese People's Liberation Army. If they were and China arrested them, expect the Chinese to make similar claims over US NSA officials. We'll be eagerly waiting to see the US' response when that happens.