China Charged In Cyber-Spying Case

The Department of Justice filed a criminal complaint in federal court last week accusing five Chinese military officers of stealing trade secrets by hacking into the computers of major industrial U.S. companies, including Alcoa, U.S. Steel, and Westinghouse Electric. The 56-page indictment alleges that the People’s Liberation Army officers “maintained unauthorized access to victim computers to steal information from these entities that would be useful” to the firms’ competitors in China. In one case, Chinese hackers stole design specifications while Westinghouse was “negotiating with a Chinese state-owned enterprise over the construction of nuclear power plants,” says John P. Carlin, assistant attorney general for national security. In another instance, he says, the hackers stole cost, pricing, and strategy information from the U.S. unit of solar panel maker SolarWorld at the same time the company was losing market share to Chinese rivals. “To be clear, this conduct is criminal,” Carlin says. China’s Foreign Ministry called the claims “absurd” and warned the case would damage U.S.-China relations.