How about the "other" enemies of the state, you know, the ones that have been making our Presidents life hell.
Posted on 02/10/2020 12:30:16 PM PST by ransomnote
Remarks as Prepared for Delivery
Good morning. I am here to announce the indictment of Chinese military hackers – specifically, four members of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army – for breaking into the computer systems of the credit-reporting agency Equifax, and for stealing the sensitive personal information of nearly half of all American citizens, and also Equifax’s hard-earned intellectual property.
This was one of the largest data breaches in history. It came to light in the summer of 2017, when Equifax announced the theft. The scale of the theft was staggering. As alleged in the indictment, the hackers obtained the names, birth dates, and social security numbers of nearly 150 million Americans, and the driver’s license numbers of at least 10 million Americans. This theft not only caused significant financial damage to Equifax, but invaded the privacy of many millions of Americans, and imposed substantial costs and burdens on them as they have had to take measures to protect against identity theft.
As described in the indictment, the hackers broke into Equifax’s network through a vulnerability in the company’s dispute resolution website. Once in the network, the hackers spent weeks conducting reconnaissance, uploading malicious software, and stealing login credentials, all to set the stage to steal vast amounts of data from Equifax’s systems. While doing this, the hackers also stole Equifax’s trade secrets, embodied by the compiled data and complex database designs used to store the personal information. Those trade secrets were the product of decades of investment and hard work by the company.
Today’s announcement comes after two years of investigation. According to the nine-count indictment handed down by a grand jury in Atlanta, four members of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army, or PLA – Wang Qian, Wu Zhiyong, Xu Ke, and Liu Lei – are alleged to have conspired to hack Equifax’s computer systems and commit economic espionage. In doing so, they are alleged to have damaged Equifax’s computer systems and to have committed wire fraud.
This kind of attack on American industry is of a piece with other Chinese illegal acquisitions of sensitive personal data. For years, we have witnessed China’s voracious appetite for the personal data of Americans, including the theft of personnel records from the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, the intrusion into Marriott hotels, and Anthem health insurance company, and now the wholesale theft of credit and other information from Equifax. This data has economic value, and these thefts can feed China’s development of artificial intelligence tools as well as the creation of intelligence targeting packages.
In addition to thefts of sensitive personal data, our cases reveal a pattern of state-sponsored computer intrusions and thefts by China targeting trade secrets and confidential business information: hacks by a group known as APT 10, which worked in association with the Chinese Ministry of State Security, or MSS, to target managed service providers and their clients worldwide across industries; hacks by MSS intelligence officers who sought to steal intellectual property related to turbofan engines by using both insiders and computer operations, and; hacks by PLA officers who targeted victims in the nuclear power, metals, and solar products industries for the economic benefit of Chinese companies. Indeed, about 80 percent of our economic espionage prosecutions have implicated the Chinese government, and about 60 percent of all trade secret theft cases in recent years involved some connection to China.
We do not normally bring criminal charges against the members of another country’s military or intelligence services outside the United States. In general, traditional military and intelligence activity is a separate sphere of conduct that ought not be subject to domestic criminal law. There are exceptions to this rule, of course. For instance, we have brought charges against intelligence officers operating undercover in the United States. And more recently, we have charged state-sponsored actors for computer intrusions into the United States for the purpose of intellectual property theft for the use of their private sector, bank robbery, and interfering with our democratic elections. Like those cases, the deliberate, indiscriminate theft of vast amounts of sensitive personal data of civilians, as occurred here, cannot be countenanced.
The United States, like other nations, has gathered intelligence throughout its history to ensure that national security and foreign policy decisionmakers have access to timely, accurate, and insightful information. But we collect information only for legitimate national security purposes; we do not indiscriminately violate the privacy of ordinary civilians.
Today’s indictment would not have been possible without the hard work of a dedicated team of FBI agents and federal prosecutors in Atlanta and here in Washington, D.C. In addition, the Department’s Office of International Affairs provided valuable assistance in working with other nations to secure evidence located overseas. Notably, Equifax cooperation throughout the investigation was critical to our development of the case.
I would like to now invite U.S. Attorney BJay Pak to provide remarks.
***
The year 2020 marks the 150th anniversary of the Department of Justice. Learn more about the history of our agency at www.Justice.gov/Celebrating150Years.
That’s all good Mr. Barr but how about indicting a bunch of rogue ex and current FBI peeps for the crimes they perpetrated on the Trump campaign, etc?
I’m just asking....
Ditto all of that.
SPJNK x 100.
Most will not appreciate the significance of this accomplishment by AG Barr. Not just in investigating and identifying those responsible, but in getting the ChiCom government to arrest them. Think for a minute about what the Chinese People’s Liberation Army is! This is the equivalent of our government arresting four members of the US Army or Navy.
Then think about what kind of negotiations had to have gone on out of public view for Barr and Trump to accomplish that.
Oh great. They’re indicted. Now who - exactly - is going to round them up for trial?
How about the "other" enemies of the state, you know, the ones that have been making our Presidents life hell.
Was one of them Feinstein?
Just a quick update:
Linday Graham recently said that half of the Russia hoax people will be going to jail.
The Trump administration has strung along many Obama hold overs while collecting information on them to fire/prosecute and expose them. The first year in office, his enemies were shrieking that he’d already “gutted” the FBI. He’s been stripping them out for three years.
With the impeachment past, he’s cut another 70 Obama hold overs in one effort.
PSA: Barr does not focus on crime at a time. He has substantial resources and works with many agencies and individuals so if he indicts Chinese hackers, it doesn’t mean that’s all he’s been working on for three years.
and the American seditionists walk free.
Freaking AG.
We don’t bloody care. What we want to see is the rule of law applied to the continual outrageous criminal acts committed by prominent and obscure leftists in this country.
If you don’t get this straight there WILL be a day of reckoning and it won’t be pretty.
Trump’s second term is your last reprieve.
and the American seditionists walk free.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
You’re going to be so disappointed when they don’t.
“The Trump administration has strung along many Obama hold overs while collecting information on them to fire/prosecute and expose them”
That’s a nice thought.
Reality is Trump should have fired half the SIS and SES in the federal govt on day one. His personnel choices have been his biggest weakness.
Ditto,go after perps you can put your hands on, such as current and soon to be ousted swamp dwellers, not Chinese scum bags you have no chance of ever bringing to justice..Geshhhh give me a frigen break
We don’t bloody care.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Who’s “we”?
I care if our enemies are indicted for economic attacks on our country.
Appreciate your post. Tired of those here that yell
“Get everything done NOW”
It takes lots of time to do certain things. Quit bashing someone that is working on it and give him Praises to High Heaven for even being here to do anything!
WTF was that all about,pretty brutal whatever it was or appeared
What is the point of indicting soldiers who were following orders? They will never face justice here, and were likely praised and rewarded for their performance by their leaders. Address it with Xi, and demand compensation for every victim.
That’s a BOOM!!!
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