Chinese state-owned enterprises 'hired' military hacking unit
A U.S. criminal indictment against Chinese Army personnel over alleged hacking describes how stolen intellectual property was funneled to Chinese companies, an unresolved question for analysts.
In the first legal action of its kind, federal prosecutors charged five members of Chinese Army signals intelligence Unit 61398 with stealing nuclear, solar power and steel trade secrets from six U.S. organizations over eight years. China denies the accusations.
Unit 61398’s activities have long been observed by computer security experts. It was publicly identified as “Advanced Persistent Threat 1” (APT1) in a February 2013 report from Mandiant, a company now owned by security firm FireEye, as one of many military-affiliated groups in China running sophisticated intrusion campaigns.
