Security News > 2020 > February > Chinese Military Hackers Charged Over Equifax Data Breach
The United States government has officially charged four members of China's People's Liberation Army with hacking into credit reporting agency Equifax and being responsible for the massive data breach that exposed highly sensitive information on more than 145 million Americans.
"Today, we hold PLA hackers accountable for their criminal actions, and we remind the Chinese government that we have the capability to remove the Internet's cloak of anonymity and find the hackers that nation repeatedly deploys against us. Unfortunately, the Equifax hack fits a disturbing and unacceptable pattern of state-sponsored computer intrusions and thefts by China and its citizens that have targeted personally identifiable information, trade secrets, and other confidential information."
According to a 2018 report from the U.S. Government Accountability Office, it took Equifax 76 days to detect the data breach.
"We are grateful to the Justice Department and the FBI for their tireless efforts in determining that the military arm of China was responsible for the cyberattack on Equifax in 2017," Equifax CEO Mark W. Begor said in a statement.
State sponsored hackers from China have also been suspected of being responsible for the massive Marriott data breach announced in 2018 that affected as many as 500 million individuals, and has also been the main suspect in the massive breach disclosed by the U.S. Office of Personnel Management in 2015 that exposed millions of U.S. Government workers.
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