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WASHINGTON — The Justice Division talked about on Tuesday that a Chinese language bellow-backed contract hacker modified into as soon as arrested final week in Italy at the seek data from of Washington, nevertheless the arrested man claimed he’s a victim of fallacious id.

Xu Zewei, 33, modified into as soon as arrested on July 3, the Justice Division talked about, in conjunction with a nine-count indictment modified into as soon as unsealed on Tuesday within the Southern District of Texas alleging the involvement of that individual and a co-defendant in computer intrusions between February 2020 and June 2021.

Xu modified into as soon as arrested in Milan, Italy, and might per chance per chance face extradition proceedings, the DOJ talked about in a assertion.

It alleged China’s ministry of bellow security had directed theft of Covid-19 analysis and the exploitation of Microsoft MSFT.O electronic mail instrument vulnerabilities.

The Chinese language government has previously denied allegations of being enthusiastic. Liu Pengyu, a spokesperson for China’s embassy in Washington, talked about on Tuesday that China opposes all styles of cyber crimes, in conjunction with that “China has neither the necessity nor the blueprint to make vaccines by so-known as theft.”

Xu’s lawyer talked about on Tuesday that he’s a victim of fallacious id, that his surname is awfully general in China and that his cellular phone had been stolen in 2020.

The 33-year-ragged IT supervisor at a Shanghai firm looked on Tuesday sooner than an appeals court in Milan, that will make a call whether to ship him to the US. The individual modified into as soon as arrested final week after he arrived at Milan’s Malpensa airport for a vacation in Italy with his associate.

U.S. authorities roar that he modified into as soon as section of a team of hackers who tried to get entry to a Covid-19 vaccine being developed by the University of Texas in 2020.

The DOJ also talked about that in 2021, he modified into as soon as section of a cyber-espionage neighborhood identified as Hafnium, which has alleged ties to the Chinese language government and which “exploited zero-day vulnerabilities in U.S. programs to hold extra analysis.”

Hafnium centered over 60,000 U.S. entities, according to the DOJ.

The costs listed on the arrest warrant had been wire fraud and aggravated id theft, conspiracy to commit wire fraud and unauthorized get entry to to safe computers.

Reuters

Reuters