China’s hack charge

Military personnel accused of giant US consumer data theft

FOUR members of the Chinese military have been charged with breaking into the computer networks of the Equifax credit reporting agency and stealing the personal information of tens of millions of Americans, the Justice Department says, blaming Beijing for one of the largest hacks in history to target consumer data.

The hackers in the 2017 breach stole the personal information of about 145 million Americans, collecting names, addresses, Social Security and driver’s licence numbers and other data stored in the company’s databases.

The intrusion damaged the company’s reputation and underscored China’s increasingly sophisticated intelligencegathering methods.

“The scale of the theft was staggering,” Attorney-General

William Barr said yesterday in announcing the indictment.

“This theft not only caused significant financial damage to Equifax, but invaded the privacy of millions of Americans.”

The case is the latest US accusation against Chinese hackers suspected of breaching networks of American corporations.

It comes as the Trump administration has warned against what it sees as the growing political and economic influence of China, and efforts by Beijing to collect data for financial and intelligence purposes.

Experts said the Equifax theft is consistent with the Chinese government’s interest in accumulating information about Americans.

The data can be used by China to target US government officials and ordinary citizens, including possible spies, and to find weaknesses and vulnerabilities that can be exploited – such as for purposes of blackmail.

The four accused hackers are suspected members of the People’s Liberation Army, an arm of the Chinese military that was blamed in 2014 for a series of intrusions into American corporations.