US demands delivery of a Chinese in Italy for covid-19 hacking

US demands delivery of a Chinese in Italy for covid-19 hacking

Italian authorities have arrested a Chinese man who, according to US power of attorney, is part of a hacker team that is said to have stolen the coveted American research results on a Coronavirus vaccine on behalf of the Chinese secret service.

Details for arrest and indictment

During the pandemic high phase in early 2020, Xu Zewei worked on instruction from the Chinese Ministry for State Security. His goal was US universities as well as virologists and immunologists who worked on research on Covid-19 vaccines, treatments and tests, according to the indictment published on Tuesday in the US district court for the southern Texas. Another person, Zhang Yu, is also accused of being involved in these activities. Zhang is suspected in China, according to a spokeswoman for the Ministry of Justice.

court proceedings and legal challenges

XU, 33 years old, was arrested at Malpensa Airport northwest of Milan on July 3 and then taken to a nearby prison, where he was to be released in court. On Tuesday he appeared in Milan for the first time in Milan, while the US Ministry of Justice is trying to deliver Xu in the southern district of Texas. There he sees accusations for electrical fraud, identity theft and hacking -related offenses.

The arrest represents a significant progress for the FBI, which Hacker is pursuing, which act on behalf of foreign secret services, but rarely can make a suspect from China into custody. According to the Houston office of the FBI, Xu is one of the first hackers associated with the Chinese secret services and were taken by the FBI.

reactions and statements

in court, XU said that he "had nothing to do with this case", his lawyer Enrico Giarda told journalists. "He describes himself as an IT manager in a company in Shanghai and explains that he had no reason for the crimes laid for him," added Giarda and explained that he was still waiting to look at the documents and understand how the FBI identified it.

The arrest could trigger a delivery battle that exerts pressure on the Italian government that tries to maintain good relationships with the USA and at the same time with China, an important trading partner.

universities in the sights of the hacker

"The University of Texas Medical Branch is grateful to the FBI and all law enforcement agencies involved for their care in the persecution of this investigation," said the university, but refused further comments on the basis of ongoing investigations.

China's reaction

Liu Pengyu, spokesman for the Chinese embassy in Washington, DC, expressed that he knew nothing about the XU case, but similar rumors have appeared in the past. China has already presented his position on this topic. In an email, Liu said that vaccine research and development in China was "among the most progressive in the world" and that China has neither the need nor the intention to acquire vaccines through so -called theft.

When the Coronavirus 2020 broke out globally, secret services worldwide tried to collect information about the effects of the virus. In some cases, this was supposed to use hackers to attack research centers that worked on a vaccine. The FBI and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) emphasize China in a public reference from May 2020.

The importance of arrest

teddy Nemeroff, a former high cyber official in the Foreign Ministry, said that the five years between this note and the Arrest of XU illustrate the tedious work that is necessary to pursue hackers, attack the valuable US institutions. "This type of arrest sends an important message of cybercriminals who think that they could operate with unpunished jurisdictions," said Nemeroff compared to Cnn.

"Even five years after they took the Covid vaccine research into the Viceier, the US criminal proceedings have obtained it. Such arrests are only possible with the support of strong law enforcement partners such as Italy who are ready to go into potentially unpleasant diplomatic situations with countries like China."

The FBI has explained that China has a more extensive hacking program than all other foreign governments, which illustrates the challenge of keeping up with Beijing's pace in the field of intelligence services.

"XU’s arrest will probably not have any direct practical effects," John Hultquist, chief analyst at Google's Threat Intelligence Group, told CNN. "It could make someone think twice before participating in such activities because you can no longer be sure that everything will go smoothly."

This article was created with the support of CNNS Juan Pablo O’Connell.