Two Chinese nationals have been indicted for seeking to steal COVID-19 vaccine research and hacking hundreds of companies in the United States and abroad, including defense contractors, the US Justice Department said Tuesday.
Li and Dong, who are believed to be in China, acted in some instances"for their own personal gain" and in others for the benefit of China's Ministry of State Security, Demers said at a news conference. They have targeted companies in the United States, Australia, Belgium, Germany, Japan, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Spain, South Korea, Sweden, and Britain, it said.
Justice Department officials said that Li and Dong targeted biotech companies in California, Maryland, Massachusetts and elsewhere but did not appear to have actually compromised any COVID-19 research.The Justice Department said they also targeted"non-governmental organizations, and individual dissidents, clergy, and democratic and human rights activists in the United States and abroad, including Hong Kong and China.
The indictment was returned by a grand jury in the Eastern District of Washington state on July 7 but was only unsealed on Tuesday.