US government agencies have charged alleged members of China's Silk Typhoon gang, unveiling a major espionage campaign where Beijing relied on private contractors to hack and steal sensitive information, securing plausible deniability. The indictments named 12 Chinese nationals, including two linked to the Ministry of Public Security, and ten from Anxun Information Technology. The operations compromised US government entities, targeting agencies like the Treasury. This reveals the extensive hacker-for-hire ecosystem that has flourished due to state support, resulting in significant financial profits for the involved parties.
For years, the PRC government - in particular, its Ministries of State and Public Security - have encouraged, supported and relied on private contractors and Chinese technology companies to hack and steal information in a manner that hides the government's involvement, essentially providing it the form of plausible deniability.
Each of these defendants played a critical role in the PRC government hacker-for-hire ecosystem, which by any measure, has gotten out of control.
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