Security News > 2020 > February > Chinese Military Stole Masses of Americans’ Data, US Says
Four members of the Chinese military have been charged with breaking into the networks of the Equifax credit reporting agency and stealing the personal information of tens of millions of Americans, the Justice Department said Monday, blaming Beijing for one of the largest hacks in history to target consumer data.
The case is the latest Justice Department accusation against Chinese hackers suspected of breaching networks of American corporations.
U.S. officials nonetheless view criminal charges like the ones brought in this case as a powerful deterrent to foreign hackers and a warning to other countries that American law enforcement has the capability to pinpoint individual culprits behind hacks.
"This kind of attack on American industry is of a piece with other Chinese illegal acquisitions of sensitive personal data," Barr said of Monday's announcement, adding that "For years we have witnessed China's voracious appetite for the personal data of Americans."
They stole login credentials and ultimately downloaded and extractedate data from Equifax to computers outside the United States.
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