A good first step: US charges Chinese officials with cyber-espionage

[Commentary] The United States is beginning to fight back against China’s relentless cyberattacks. For the first time, the US Department of Justice charged Chinese military officials with cyber-espionage against US companies.

The alleged victims of the cyberspying are Alcoa World Alumina, Westinghouse Electric, Allegheny Technologies, US Steel, United Steelworkers Union, and SolarWorld. The accused are Wang Dong, Sun Kailiang, Wen Xinyu, Huang Zhenyu and Gu Chunhui, all officers of Unit 61398 of the 3rd Department of the People’s Liberation Army.

According to the FBI, after gaining illegal access to the networks of the targeted companies, Sun Kailiang and his co-conspirators “then used their illegal access to allegedly steal proprietary information including, for instance, e-mail exchanges among company employees and trade secrets related to technical specifications for nuclear plant designs.” Sun, who held the rank of captain during the early stages of the investigation, was observed both sending malicious e-mails and controlling victim computers.

The FBI and department of Justice should be lauded for their investigative and legal work that fingered these members of the PLA. The PLA Unit involved is, among other activities, apparently mandated to steal US trade secrets for the benefit of primarily Chinese state-owned companies a competitive advantage. This is a good first step in the cyber dimension of Sino-American competition.