Hacker who allegedly carried out cyberattacks for China is extradited to U.S. - BERITAJA

A man accused of carrying retired cyberattacks connected behalf of the Chinese authorities has been extradited to the United States, according to his lawyer. 

Last year, the U.S. Justice Department accused Xu Zewei of moving arsenic a contractor for the Chinese Ministry of State Security to behaviour a bid of cyberattacks. Prosecutors alleged Xu and co-conspirator Zhang Yu targeted respective U.S. universities successful early 2020 to bargain investigation related to the COVID-19 pandemic. The 2 besides allegedly hacked thousands of email servers moving Microsoft Exchange opening March 2021, arsenic portion of an “indiscriminate” run attributed to a Chinese-backed hacking group known arsenic Hafnium, and later Silk Typhoon.

Xu was arrested successful Italy past twelvemonth astatine the petition of U.S. authorities. His lawyer successful Italy, Simona Candido, told TechCrunch that Xu was extradited to the United States connected Saturday, and that he is now successful detention successful Houston, Texas. 

According to the U.S. Bureau of Prison’s website, a man pinch the aforesaid sanction is successful custody astatine the Federal Detention Center successful Houston. 

Xu’s lawyer successful the United States, Dan Cogdell, was scheduled to look astatine a proceeding successful Houston connected Monday, according to tribunal records. Cogdell told TechCrunch that he recovered retired about the proceeding earlier connected Monday. 

Angela Dodge, a spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney’s Office successful the Southern District of Texas, which is prosecuting Xu’s case, acknowledged receipt of an email but did not instantly respond to TechCrunch’s questions about Xu.

As the Justice Department said erstwhile it initially announced charges against the accused hackers, Xu allegedly worked for Shanghai Powerock Network, a institution successful China that prosecutors said “conducted hacking” for Beijing. Xu and different hackers allegedly reported their activities straight to Chinese authorities officials successful Shanghai.

Along pinch Zhang, he was portion of the Hafnium group that allegedly took advantage of antecedently undiscovered information flaws successful Microsoft Exchange servers pinch the purpose of hacking into respective American organizations, including defense contractors, rule firms, deliberation tanks, and infectious illness researchers. 

According to prosecutors, Hafnium hackers targeted much than 60,000 entities successful the U.S. and were successful successful hacking much than 12,700 of them. 

The Chinese Embassy successful Washington D.C. did not respond to a petition for comment.  

The Financial Times reported that the Chinese Foreign Ministry opposed Xu’s extradition and accused the U.S. authorities of “fabricating cases.” 

For years, the U.S. authorities has charged suspected Chinese hackers, galore of whom stay astatine large. In 2022, Yanjun Xu was sentenced to 20 years successful situation for hacking crimes successful what the DOJ said was the first lawsuit wherever a Chinese authorities intelligence serviceman had been extradited to the United States.