FBI Director Kash Patel announced on Tuesday (May 28) the arrest of a Chinese national accused of orchestrating a major cyber intrusion campaign targeting US COVID-19 research during the pandemic.<\/p>\n
In a statement posted on X (formerly Twitter), Patel said: \u201cThe FBI and our great partners have arrested Xu Zewei – a PRC national and state-sponsored hacker – allegedly responsible for a massive cyber intrusion campaign in 2020 and 2021 stealing COVID-19 research from American institutions.\u201d<\/p>\n
Extradition from Italy<\/p>\n
The suspect, identified as Xu Zewei, has been extradited to the United States from Italy and will face federal charges, Kash Patel said.<\/p>\n
Patel confirmed: \u201cXu has been extradited to the U.S. out of Italy as of this weekend, and he will now face federal charges.\u201d<\/p>\n
Targeting COVID-19 research<\/p>\n
According to the FBI, the alleged hacking campaign took place during the peak of the pandemic and focused on critical US scientific research.<\/p>\n
\u201cDuring 2020 and 2021, at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, Xu and his co-conspirators allegedly targeted and hacked U.S.-based universities, immunologists, and virologists conducting COVID-19 research – including key treatment and vaccines – accessing email accounts and more.\u201d<\/p>\n
Links to HAFNIUM group<\/p>\n
Authorities say Xu was connected to a broader state-backed cyber operation known as HAFNIUM.<\/p>\n
\u201cXu was also allegedly a key contractor part of what\u2019s known as HAFNIUM, a group responsible for a massive cyber intrusion campaign (directed by PRC officials) that compromised nearly 13,000 U.S. organizations.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2018Historic win\u2019 for cybersecurity<\/p>\n
Patel described the arrest as a major breakthrough in US efforts to combat cyber threats.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis case is a historic win for our cybersecurity efforts under President Trump, bringing bad actors who target American infrastructure to justice no matter where they try to hide.\u201d<\/p>\n
Cooperation with Italian authorities<\/p>\n
The FBI credited Italian law enforcement for their role in the operation, highlighting international cooperation.<\/p>\n
\u201cA huge thank you to our partners in Italy, including Prefect Vittorio Pisani of the Italian National Police, who worked with us nonstop in this investigation – getting Xu in custody, extraditing him, and conducting an FTOC with FBI personnel.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"FBI Director Kash Patel announced on Tuesday (May 28) the arrest of a Chinese national accused of orchestrating…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":10719,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[7837,7826,7832,7834,7827,7825,7824,7831,7836,7833,5,7823,7829,7835,7830,7828,7655],"class_list":["post-10718","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-italy","tag-chinese-xu-zewei","tag-covid-19-data-breach","tag-covid-19-pandemic-2020-2021","tag-covid-19-research","tag-covid-19-research-theft","tag-cybersecurity-breach","tag-fbi-arrest-hacker-extradition","tag-fbi-arrests-chinese-hacker","tag-fbi-director-kash-patel","tag-hafnium-group","tag-italy","tag-kash-patel","tag-prc-linked-hacker","tag-us-covid-19-research","tag-us-china-cyber-tensions","tag-vaccine-research-breach","tag-xu-zewei"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10718","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10718"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10718\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10719"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10718"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10718"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10718"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}