Washington: The United States on Monday indicted five members of the Chinese military on charges they stole US secrets through hacking to help state-run companies, the Justice Department said.
A grand jury filed charges against five people in the People’s Liberation Army’s shadowy Unit 61398 for allegedly stealing steel industry secrets to benefit Chinese state-owned companies.
The criminal charges said that the hackers broke into US computers to gain a competitive advantage, hurting companies such as Westinghouse and the US Steel Corp as well as workers.
Attorney General Eric Holder said the charges were the first of their kind against state actors and should serve as “a wake-up call.” “This administration will not tolerate actions by any nation that seeks to illegally sabotage American companies,” Mr Holder told reporters.
