{"id":1546606,"date":"2025-07-11T23:45:00","date_gmt":"2025-07-12T03:45:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/?p=1546606"},"modified":"2025-07-11T23:45:00","modified_gmt":"2025-07-12T03:45:00","slug":"us-charges-chinese-man-accused-of-hacking-into-universities-to-steal-covid-19-research","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/us-charges-chinese-man-accused-of-hacking-into-universities-to-steal-covid-19-research\/1546606\/","title":{"rendered":"US Charges Chinese Man Accused Of Hacking Into Universities to Steal COVID-19 Research"},"content":{"rendered":"

US Charges Chinese Man Accused Of Hacking Into Universities to Steal COVID-19 Research<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Authored by Frank Fang via The Epoch Times<\/a> (emphasis ours),<\/em><\/p>\n

The Department of Justice (DOJ) announced<\/a> charges on July 8 against a Chinese national taken into custody in Italy at the behest of Washington, and accused him of hacking into several U.S. universities to steal COVID-19 research at the direction of China\u2019s main intelligence agency.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Department of Justice (DOJ) in Washington on March 10, 2025. Madalina Vasiliu\/The Epoch Times<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

Xu Zewei, 33, was arrested<\/a> in Milan, Italy, on July 3 by Italian law enforcement officials and FBI agents as he departed a plane from China.<\/strong> Xu and another Chinese national, Zhang Yu, 44, who remains at large, are charged in a nine-count indictment<\/a> unsealed in the Southern District of Texas on Tuesday for their alleged involvement in computer intrusions between February 2020 and June 2021.<\/p>\n

According to the indictment, Xu was a general manager at a Chinese company called Shanghai Powerock Network, which allegedly conducted hacking operations at the direction of the Shanghai State Security Bureau (SSSB) under China\u2019s Ministry of State Security (MSS).<\/p>\n

The DOJ said that Xu\u2019s case exemplifies the Chinese regime\u2019s use of a vast network of private companies and contractors in China to carry out hacking and information theft in a manner that concealed Beijing\u2019s involvement.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe indictment alleges that Xu was hacking and stealing crucial COVID-19 research at the behest of the Chinese government <\/strong>while that same government was simultaneously withholding information about the virus and its origins,\u201d Nicholas Ganjei, U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Texas, said<\/a> in a statement.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Southern District of Texas has been waiting years to bring Xu to justice and that day is nearly at hand. As this case shows, even if it takes years, we will track hackers down and make them answer for their crimes. The United States does not forget.\u201d<\/p>\n

The CIA<\/a>, FBI<\/a>, and Energy Department<\/a> have determined that the COVID-19 pandemic likely originated from a laboratory in China, an assessment that Beijing has dismissed. Chinese authorities initially downplayed the severity<\/a> of the outbreak for several weeks before it escalated into a pandemic.<\/p>\n

The FBI\u2019s Houston Field Office, which is investigating the case, said that Xu is allegedly \u201cone of the first hackers linked to Chinese intelligence services to be captured by the FBI,\u201d according to a post<\/a> on social media platform X on July 8.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur investigation revealed that the PRC government will stop at nothing to steal from America<\/strong>. They have no shame in their actions, and no respect for international laws,\u201d the Houston Field Office added in a separate X post<\/a>. \u201cTheir only regret is that their criminal conduct is now unmasked and laid bare for the world to see.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hacking<\/h2>\n

Xu and his coconspirators are accused of hacking the networks of several U.S.-based universities, as well as the email accounts of immunologists and virologists conducting research into COVID-19 vaccines, treatment, and testing.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Prosecutors did not name the universities. According to the indictment, two universities are based in the Southern District of Texas, identified only as \u201cUNIVERSITY 1\u201d and \u201cUNIVERSITY 3,\u201d and the third, identified only as \u201cUNIVERSITY 2,\u201d is located in North Carolina. An unnamed law firm, with offices in the United States and elsewhere, was also targeted.<\/p>\n

Xu allegedly compromised the network of \u201cUNIVERSITY 1\u201d on Feb. 19, 2020, according to prosecutors. Three days later, an SSSB officer directed Xu to target and access certain email accounts belonging to the university\u2019s virologists and immunologists. According to the indictment, Xu informed the officer that he had \u201cacquired the contents of the mailboxes\u201d days later.<\/p>\n

Xu and Zhang are also accused of being part of a China-sponsored hacking group called Hafnium, which garnered global attention in 2021 after Microsoft identified<\/a> the group for exploiting the vulnerabilities in its Exchange Server email program.<\/p>\n

\u201cThrough HAFNIUM, the CCP targeted over 60,000 U.S. entities, successfully victimizing more than 12,700 in order to steal sensitive information,<\/strong>\u201d Brett Leatherman, assistant director of the FBI\u2019s cyber division, said<\/a> in a statement.<\/p>\n

Xu and his coconspirators began exploiting the Exchange Server vulnerabilities in late 2020, prosecutors said. According to the indictment, Xu confirmed to Zhang that he had compromised the computer network of \u201cUNIVERSITY 3\u201d on Jan. 30, 2021, after the coconspirators breached the school\u2019s computers running the Exchange Server and installed web shells on them to enable remote administration.<\/p>\n

Using similar techniques associated with the Exchange Server, Xu and his coconspirators gained access to the law firm\u2019s computer and used keywords such as \u201cHongKong\u201d and \u201cMSS\u201d to look for information regarding specific U.S. policymakers and government agencies.<\/p>\n

The charges Xu faces include wire fraud, aggravated identity theft, and conspiracy to cause damage to and obtain information by unauthorized access to protected computers. He faces up to 20 years in prison for the wire fraud charges alone.<\/p>\n

On Tuesday, Xu\u2019s lawyer said that his client is a victim of mistaken identity, given that his surname is common in China, and his cellphone had been stolen since 2020.<\/p>\n

Xu appeared before an appeals court in Milan and opposed extradition to the United States.<\/p>\n

Reuters contributed to this report.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Tyler Durden<\/a><\/span>
\nFri, 07\/11\/2025 – 19:45<\/span><\/p>\n

\u200bhttps:\/\/www.zerohedge.com\/geopolitical\/us-charges-chinese-man-accused-hacking-universities-steal-covid-19-research<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

US Charges Chinese Man Accused Of Hacking Into Universities to Steal COVID-19 Research Authored by Frank Fang via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours), The Department…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":1546607,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1546606","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","wpcat-1-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1546606","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1546606"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1546606\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1546607"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1546606"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1546606"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1546606"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}