{"id":37154,"date":"2020-09-16T15:27:53","date_gmt":"2020-09-16T15:27:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/packetstormsecurity.com\/news\/view\/31581\/US-Charges-Five-Hackers-Part-Of-Chinese-State-Sponsored-Group-APT41.html"},"modified":"2020-09-16T15:27:53","modified_gmt":"2020-09-16T15:27:53","slug":"us-charges-five-hackers-part-of-chinese-state-sponsored-group-apt41","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.threatshub.org\/blog\/us-charges-five-hackers-part-of-chinese-state-sponsored-group-apt41\/","title":{"rendered":"US Charges Five Hackers Part Of Chinese State-Sponsored Group APT41"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The US government has filed charges today against five Chinese nationals for hacking into more than 100 companies across the world, part of a state-sponsored hacking group known as APT41<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

According to court documents unsealed today, US officials said the group has hacked software development companies, computer hardware manufacturers, telecommunications providers, social media companies, video game companies, non-profit organizations, universities, think tanks, from where they stole proprietary source code, code-signing certificates, customer data, and valuable business information. <\/p>\n

Victim companies resided in countries such as the US, Australia, Brazil, Chile, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan,
Malaysia, Pakistan, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, and Vietnam.<\/p>\n

US officials said APT41 members also compromised foreign government computer networks in India and Vietnam, as well as pro-democracy politicians and activists in Hong Kong. Attacks against he UK government were also executed, but were not successful.<\/p>\n

The APT41 group is one of today’s most infamous and most active state-sponsored hacking groups. ATP41’s operations were first revealed in a FireEye report<\/a> published in August 2019.<\/p>\n

The report was ground-breaking, at the time, as FireEye researchers revealed how the the group conducted both cyber-espionage for the Chinese regime but also intrusions for personal financial gain, usually executed outside normal working hours. Most of these side-hacks usually targeted gaming companies, from where they stole source code or digital in-game currency.<\/p>\n

In some cases, APT41 was also spotted deploying ransomware and installed malware that mined cryptocurrency for the group’s members. While it’s unknown how many of these incidents have occurred, the DOJ named one victim of a ransomware attack as “a non-profit organization dedicated to combating global poverty.”<\/p>\n

Five Chinese nationals indicted
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According to court documents obtained by ZDNet, the indictments came in two waves, but were unsealed today. The first two APT41 members were identified and charged in August 2019, following the FireEye report. According to a copy of the 2019 indictment<\/a>, these charges stemmed from allegedly hacking high technology and video gaming companies, and a United Kingdom citizen. The two suspects were identified as:<\/p>\n