Politics Chinese hackers took trillions in intellectual property from about 30 multinational companies

A yearslong malicious cyber operation spearheaded by the notorious Chinese state actor, APT 41, has siphoned off an estimated trillions in intellectual property theft from approximately 30 multinational companies within the manufacturing, energy and pharmaceutical sectors.

A new report by Boston-based cybersecurity firm, Cybereason, has unearthed a malicious campaign — dubbed Operation CuckooBees — exfiltrating hundreds of gigabytes of intellectual property and sensitive data, including blueprints, diagrams, formulas, and manufacturing-related proprietary data from multiple intrusions, spanning technology and manufacturing companies in North America, Europe, and Asia.

"We're talking about Blueprint diagrams of fighter jets, helicopters, and missiles," Cybereason CEO Lior Div told CBS News. In pharmaceuticals, "we saw them stealing IP of drugs around diabetes, obesity, depression." The campaign has not yet been stopped....

The intrusion also exfiltrated data from the energy industry – including designs of solar panel and edge vacuum system technology....

The FBI estimated in its report that the annual cost to the U.S. economy of counterfeit goods, pirated software, and theft of trade secrets is between $225 billion and $600 billion.

"Across the Chinese state, in pretty much every major city, they have thousands of either Chinese government or Chinese government-contracted hackers who spend all day – with a lot of funding and very sophisticated tools – trying to figure out how to hack into companies networks… to try to steal their trade secrets," Wray noted.

According to William Schneider Jr., "China has institutionalized a system that combines legal and illegal means of technology acquisition from abroad".[3] The issue is not limited to the United States, but is also reported in Europe,[13] and according to William Evanina, director of the National Counterintelligence and Security Center, China directs similar efforts towards other NATO members.[10] According to CNN, some U.S. officials and analysts have pointed to China's Made in China 2025 plan as "a rubric for the types of companies whose data Chinese hackers have targeted".[14]

According to a CNBC survey, 1 in 5 corporations say China has stolen intellectual property within the previous year, while 1 in 3 said it had happened some times during the previous century.[17] In 2020, FBI director Christopher Wray claimed Chinese economic espionage amounted to one of the largest transfers of wealth in human history.[13] According to CBS, Chinese state-actor APT 41 has conducted a cyber operation spanning years, stealing intellectual property worth trillions of dollars from about 30 multinational companies.[18] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allegations_of_intellectual_property_infringement_by_China

When I worked in China in 1976, I saw Gerber baby food jars with a smiling Chinese baby on the label. They clearly stole the glass jar shape, size, lid and label design.

At the fertilizer plant I was starting up, I saw the machine shop had a perfect Chinese knock-off of an American South Bend Lathe Company metal working lathe.

The only thing that’s changed is the speed at which they steal our corporate secrets, they no longer need to reverse-engineer American products, and the sheer volume of what they steal.

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