Hacker who allegedly carried out cyberattacks for China is extradited to U.S.

A man accused of executing cyberattacks on behalf of the Chinese government has been extradited to the United States, as confirmed by his legal representative. The U.S. Justice Department has charged Xu Zewei with serving as a contractor for the Chinese Ministry of State Security, where he allegedly orchestrated a series of cyber operations. Prosecutors claim that Xu, along with his co-conspirator Zhang Yu, targeted several American universities in early 2020 in an effort to steal vital research related to the COVID-19 pandemic. Furthermore, they are accused of launching attacks on thousands of Microsoft Exchange email servers starting in March 2021, as part of a widespread campaign linked to a Chinese-backed hacking group known as Hafnium, later referred to as Silk Typhoon. Xu was detained in Italy last year following a request from U.S. authorities. His Italian attorney, Simona Candido, informed TechCrunch that Xu was extradited to the U.S. on Saturday and is currently in custody in Houston, Texas. The U.S. Bureau of Prisons indicates that an individual by the same name is being held at the Federal Detention Center in Houston. Dan Cogdell, Xu’s attorney in the United States, is slated to appear at a court hearing in Houston on Monday, having learned of the session earlier that day. Angela Dodge, a spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney's Office in the Southern District of Texas, which is overseeing Xu’s prosecution, acknowledged receipt of inquiries but has not yet provided a detailed response. The Justice Department previously stated that Xu was affiliated with Shanghai Powerock Network, a Chinese company alleged to have conducted hacking operations for the Beijing government. Xu and his associates reportedly communicated their activities directly to state officials in Shanghai. Together with Zhang, Xu was part of the Hafnium group, which is accused of exploiting previously unknown security vulnerabilities in Microsoft Exchange servers to infiltrate various American organizations, including defense contractors, law firms, think tanks, and infectious disease research facilities. Prosecutors assert that Hafnium targeted over 60,000 entities in the U.S., successfully breaching more than 12,700 of these. The Chinese Embassy in Washington, D.C., did not reply to requests for comments regarding the case. The Financial Times has reported that the Chinese Foreign Ministry has voiced opposition to Xu’s extradition, alleging that the U.S. government is manufacturing accusations. For years, the U.S. has pursued charges against suspected Chinese hackers, many of whom remain unaccounted for. Notably, Yanjun Xu was sentenced to 20 years in prison in 2022 for similar hacking offenses, marking the first case of a Chinese government intelligence officer being extradited to the United States.