Xu Zewei, accused by U.S. Prosecutors of conducting cyberattacks on behalf of Chinese state intelligence, was extradited to the United States and has been detained at the Federal Detention Center in Houston, Texas, the Justice Department said in a press release.
Prosecutors have alleged Xu worked as a contractor for the Chinese Ministry of State Security and targeted U.S. Universities in early 2020 to steal research related to the COVID-19 pandemic, and later exploited Microsoft Exchange vulnerabilities in an “indiscriminate” campaign attributed to Hafnium and Silk Typhoon.
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Xu was arrested in Italy at the request of U.S. Authorities last year, his Italian lawyer Simona Candido told TechCrunch, and was extradited to the United States on Saturday. According to court records and his U.S. Lawyer Dan Cogdell, Xu “pleaded not guilty to all charges” during an initial federal hearing and was remanded back into custody.
Prosecutors say the Hafnium operation attempted to access more than 60,000 U.S. Entities and successfully hacked more than 12,700 of them, and that Xu worked for Shanghai Powerock Network, a company prosecutors said “conducted hacking” for Beijing. The Financial Times reported the Chinese Foreign Ministry opposed the extradition and accused the U.S. Government of “fabricating cases.”
The recap
- Xu Zewei extradited to the United States and held in Houston.
- Prosecutors say Hafnium targeted more than 60,000 U.S. Entities.
- Xu pleaded not guilty and was remanded into federal custody.
