Italy has extradited a Chinese hacker wanted in the United States for allegedly stealing vaccine research at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. Italian National Police said on Monday they handed over the “dangerous foreign hacker” to the US following his arrest in Milan last July on suspicion of conducting cyberattacks against universities and other institutions engaged in COVID-related research.
Italian police said the suspect and his co-conspirators exploited cybersecurity flaws in email software to target thousands of computers in a Chinese state-sponsored cyber-espionage campaign dubbed “Hafnium”. The US Department of Justice said the suspect, 34-year-old Xu Zewei, had targeted universities, immunologists, and virologists under the direction of China’s Ministry of State Security while employed at the Shanghai-based company Powerock Network.
Prosecutors said the targeted institutions included a university in southern Texas and a law firm with offices in Washington, DC. Xu appeared in the US District Court in Houston, Texas, on Monday to face nine criminal counts, including wire fraud and conspiracy to obtain information by unauthorised access to protected computers.
“The United States is committed to pursuing hackers who steal information from US businesses and universities and threaten our cybersecurity,” said Assistant Attorney General for National Security John A Eisenberg.
The Chinese Embassy in Washington, DC, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Beijing has previously denied conducting hacking operations in the US and elsewhere, branding such claims as “groundless accusations”. Xu’s lawyers did not respond to requests for comment. If convicted, Xu could face up to 20 years in prison for each count of the most serious charges.
