Chinese hackers stole Australian defence contractor data, US reveals

Hackers working for Chinese spy agencies stole confidential documents from an Australian contractor, the US has revealed.

The US Department of Justice has revealed charges against hackers working for Chinese spy agencies.

Hackers working for Chinese spy agencies stole a massive trove of confidential documents from an Australian defence contractor last year and recently hacked an Australian solar company, the US Department of Justice has revealed.

The two hackers, Li Xiaoyu, 34 years old, and Dong Jiazhi, 33, have also been accused of targeting American firms seeking a vaccine for the coronavirus.

It is the first time foreign nationals have been charged with trying to steal scientific information about a coronavirus vaccine and comes only days after Russia was accused of trying to hack vaccine companies.

In an indictment, the DOJ accuses the two men, both former engineering students from China, of a decade-long spree of hacking against sensitive overseas targets, including Australia, and then selling that information to the Chinese government, including its spy agencies.

“China has now taken its place, alongside Russia, Iran and North Korea, in that shameful club of nations that provide a safe haven for cyber criminals in exchange for those criminals being “on call” to work for the benefit of the state, here to feed the Chinese Communist party’s insatiable hunger for American and other non-Chinese companies’ hard-earned intellectual property, including COVID-19 research,” Assistant Attorney John Demers, the DOJ’s top national security official said.

Assistant US Attorney General for National Security John C. Demers. Picture: AFP

The indictment reveals that between April and June last year an unnamed Australian defence contractor was hacked by the two men.

“(They) stole approximately 320 gigabytes of documents including, among other things, source code for (the company’s) products, engineering schematics and technical manuals,” the DOJ’s indictment revealed.

The indictment does not say precisely what defence information was stolen from Australia but it does say that defence data stolen by the pair in “the US and abroad” included topics on military satellite programs, military communications systems, microwave and laser systems, counter-chemical weapons systems and ship-to-helicopter integration systems.

In January this year, it alleges the Chinese hackers also breached the systems of an “Australian solar energy engineering” company where they “compromised (the) network and conducted additional network reconnaissance”.

In June last year, Prime Minister Scott Morrison warned publicly that the Australian government and institutions were being targeted by ongoing state-sponsored cyber hacks.

Scott Morrison and Chinese President Xi Jinping in 2019. Picture: Adam Taylor/PMO

Mr Morrison said the targets included “government, industry, political organisations, education, health, essential service providers and operators of other critical infrastructure”.

Although security experts at that time believed China was responsible, the prime minister did not publicly identify any country except to say he believed it was a state-sponsored attack “because of the scale and nature of the targeting and the trade craft used”.

“There are not a large number of state-based actors that can engage in this type of activity,” Mr Morrison said.

In February last year security agencies investigated attempts to hack into the computer network of the parliament in Canberra.

The US indictment is the latest example of the Trump administration taking a tougher line on China, however, the two men are believed to be in China and are unlikely to ever face a US court.

The DOJ says the two Chinese hackers stole massive amounts of sensitive information from industries including defence, pharmaceuticals, solar, education and medical as well as information about activists and dissidents in Hong Kong and the US.

“There are literally hundreds of millions of dollars worth of trade secrets, intellectual property and other valuable information that has been stolen,” said US Attorney William Hyslop.

Prosecutors allege the two men sought to penetrate at least four American companies which were working on a potential vaccine for the coronavirus.

“The hackers stole terabytes of data which comprised a sophisticated and prolific threat to US networks,” the DOJ said. “More recently, the defendants probed for vulnerabilities in computer networks of companies developing COVID-19 vaccines testing technology, and treatments.”

The indictment comes as Donald Trump ramps up his attacks on China on trade, security and on its role in covering up the early stages and spread of the coronavirus.

Cameron Stewart is also US Contributor for Sky News Australia