According to NBC News, citing the Secret Service of the United States, hackers in China stole at least $20 million (approximately Rs. 165 crore) in US Covid assistance benefits, including monies from unemployment insurance and Small Business Administration loans. The APT41 hacking organization operates out of Chengdu and is affiliated with the Chinese government. Other government investigations into pandemic fraud, the article claims, also link back to hackers with ties to foreign states.
According to Secret Service national pandemic fraud recovery coordinator Roy Dotson’s interview with NBC, “it would be ridiculous to suppose this gang didn’t target all 50 states.”
The United States Secret Service would not comment on the status of any other investigations.
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NBC reports that APT41 has been called a “notable player” in the investigation of public benefits fraud involving global and domestic criminal groups.
There has been an increase in Chinese espionage operations targeting the United States in recent months.
The United States government last month filed charges against 13 people, including members of China’s security and intelligence apparatus and their agents, for allegedly trying to use illicit means to further the interests of the Chinese government in the United States.
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Chinese government officials “sought to tamper with the rights and freedoms of individuals in the United States and to undermine our judicial system that preserves those rights,” according to a Justice Department press release, quoting Attorney General Merrick B. Garland.
Justice Department officials “will not accept attempts by any foreign force to undermine the Rule of Law upon which our democracy is based,” Garland said. “We will continue to aggressively preserve the rights granted to everyone in this country,” she continued.
Two Chinese nationals, living in New York on October 20th, were among the seven charged with conspiring to have a PRC national forcibly returned to China from the United States.
The defendants are charged with spying on a U.S. resident and engaging in a campaign to harass and pressure him into returning to Beijing as part of a worldwide extralegal repatriation attempt codenamed “Operation Fox Hunt.”
