U.S Attorney General Says 4 Chinese Military Hackers Have Been Charged

U.S Attorney General William Barr said four Chinese military hackers who participated in the hacking of consumer reporting credit Equifax Inc. (EFX) back in 2017 had been charged by the state.

The hacking in question is said to have directly affected almost 150 million citizens of the United States. Whereby, their personal data including; birth dates, driver’s license data and Social Security numbers was compromised.

These hackers also stole the company’s secrets, thereafter they routed traffic through nearly 34 servers located in nearly 20 countries to conceal their true location.

“This was a deliberate and sweeping intrusion into the private information of the American people,” said Barr.

In less than 24 hours Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang responded to Barr’s claims where he denied any involvement whatsoever by the Chinese government or Chinese military in the hacking.

Shuang said China itself is also a victim of cyber-crimes, nonetheless, it never engages in cyber theft and trade secrets.

Mark Begor, Chief Executive Officer of Equifax expressed how grateful the company was with the investigations carried out by the justice department.

“It is reassuring that our federal law enforcement agencies treat cybercrime especially state-sponsored crime with the seriousness it deserves,” said the CEO.