According to U.S. prosecutors, Xu Zewei, a Chinese national, was extradited from Italy and faces nine charges related to hacking. His arrest stems from actions directed by China's Ministry of State Security and the Shanghai State Security Bureau, which allegedly orchestrated cyber intrusions targeting thousands of computers between February 2020 and June 2021.
These intrusions included a significant campaign in 2021 linked to the group known as Hafnium, which exploited vulnerabilities in Microsoft Exchange, impacting over 12,700 organizations in the U.S. alone. Additionally, American universities and researchers working on COVID-19 vaccine development were targeted during the pandemic, according to the indictment.
Brett Leatherman, assistant director of the FBI's cyber division, criticized the expanding "hacker-for-hire ecosystem" in China, describing it as operating with profit motives while providing deniability for the Chinese government. He emphasized that hackers for hire may also sell compromised data on the dark web, contributing to a more insecure digital environment.
Leatherman highlighted that Xu's extradition serves as a warning to China's contractors that illegal activities may have consequences beyond their borders, undermining the perceived security they enjoy while operating in China.