Hackers linked to Chinese government stole at least $20 million in US Covid relief benefits: Report
Hacker
Millions of dollars have been stolen from Covid relief benefits by hackers linked to the Chinese government, US-based media outlet NBC News reported citing Secret Service.
As per the report, a hacking group called APT41 stole at least $20 million in Covid relief benefits that included small business loans and unemployment funds from over a dozen of states.
According to the report, the group is based in Chengdu and the officials told the news outlet that several investigations into pandemic frauds are pointing back to foreign-state hackers.
This would be the first known case of cybercrime that hackers linked to China's government have led to security issues in other countries.
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The report mentioned that the stealing of money began in mid-2020 and spanned 2,000 accounts. More than 40,000 financial transactions have been reported. The officials have said that so far the agency has been able to recover about half of the stolen funds.
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The officials have also mentioned that they could not confirm whether or not the hackers still have access to state government networks.
Roy Dotson, national pandemic fraud recovery coordinator for the Secret Service told NBC News, "It would be crazy to think this group didn’t target all 50 states." Dotson also acts as a liaison to other federal agencies probing Covid fraud.
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William Evanina, the former director of the National Counterintelligence and Security Center, part of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, said, "Once you are in these systems with intent to promulgate theft of personally identifying information."
As quoted by the report,John Hultquist, the head of intelligence analysis at the cybersecurity firm Mandiant, said, "I've never seen them target government money before. That would be an escalation."
Chinese authority has not responded to the report yet.
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