Three Chinese men were indicted Monday in the United States on computer hacking charges following their alleged attempts to break into the networks of three large corporations operating in the US, according to dpa. The indictment names Wu Yingzhuo, Dong Hao and Xia Lei, all of whom were residents of Guangzhou at the time of the alleged crimes. Each is charged with computer hacking, theft of trade secrets, identity theft and other crimes. They could face decades in prison if convicted, the Justice Department said in a news release. The indictment names as victims the German engineering conglomerate Siemens, the financial services company Moody's Analytics and Trimble, a Silicon Valley-based company that makes global positioning system receivers. The defendants launched "coordinated and targeted cyber intrusions" against the three businesses' US operations in order to steal confidential business information, the Justice Department said. Among the tactics used was a "spearphishing" campaign in which emails with malicious attachments or links to malware were sent to employees. Unauthorized access to the recipient's computer could be established if employees opened the links or attachments, the Justice Department said. The three defendants work for the company Guangzhou Bo Yu Information Technology Company Limited, also known as Boyusec, the department said. The hackers allegedly tried to obtain passwords and user names from Siemens' employees between May and June 2014. The following year they allegedly stole approximately 407 gigabytes of proprietary commercial data pertaining to its energy, technology and transportation businesses. Siemens told dpa it does not comment on internal security matters. US prosecutors said they have issued arrest warrants and will seek to extradite the men, US media reported.
