46-month jail for Chinese man for cyber espionage in US

Washington, July 14

A Chinese businessman has been sentenced to 46 months in prison in the US for participating in a year-long conspiracy that involved military officers from China hacking into computer networks of major American defence contractors to steal sensitive military aircraft data.

Su Bin, who is also known as Stephen Su and Stephen Subin, 51, a citizen and resident of China, told his co-conspirators – military officers in China – whom to target, which files to steal and why the information they stole was significant, according to federal prosecutors.

During the course of the conspiracy, Su and his co-conspirators stole sensitive military and export-controlled data and sent the stolen information to China, they alleged.

On March 23, he pleaded guilty.

“Su Bin’s sentence is a just punishment for his admitted role in a conspiracy with hackers from the People’s Liberation Army Air Force to illegally access and steal sensitive US military information,” said Assistant Attorney General John P Carlin.

“Su assisted the Chinese military hackers in their efforts to illegally access and steal designs for cutting-edge military aircraft that are indispensable to our national defence,” he alleged.

Attorney Eileen Decker said over the course of years, Su sought to undermine the national security of the US by seeking out information that would benefit a foreign government and providing that country with information it had never before seen.

As part of the conspiracy, Su admitted he sent e-mails to his co-conspirators with guidance regarding what persons, companies and technologies to target during their computer intrusions.

One of Su’s co-conspirators gained access to information located on computers of US firms, and he emailed Su directory file listings and folders showing the data that the co-conspirator had been able to access.

“Su then directed his co-conspirator as to which files and folders his co-conspirator should steal. Once the co-conspirator stole the data, using techniques to avoid detection when hacking the victim computers, Su translated the contents of certain stolen data from English into Chinese,” federal prosecutors alleged.

In addition, Su and his co-conspirators each wrote, revised and emailed reports about the information and technology they had acquired by their hacking activities, including its value, to the final beneficiaries of their hacking activities, the Justice Department said.

According to Su’s admissions and the sentencing documents, Su and his co-conspirators each wrote, revised and emailed reports addressed to the Second Department, General Staff Headquarters, Chinese People’s Liberation Army about the information and technology they had acquired by their hacking activities, including its value, to the final beneficiaries of their hacking activities. — PTI