US charges 4 Chinese military personnel in 2017 Equifax Hacking

The United States has reportedly charged four Chinese military personnel for hacking into a credit rating company and stealing sensitive and personal data of customers that affected more than 147 million Americans. According to the ruling, the hackers in 2017 breached into credit rating giant Equifax's system and stole personal data and documents. As per reports, the court documents said that the four people who hacked into Equifax's system were allegedly members of the People's Liberation Army's 54th Research Institute, a component of the Chinese military. 

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State-sponsored crime 

According to media reports, the location of the four military personnel is still unknown and it is highly unlikely that they will stand trial in the United States. The data stolen by hackers also included personal information of customers from Canada and the United Kingdom, as per reports. Attorney General William Barr while announcing the indictment called the hack one of the largest data breaches in history. Media reports suggest that the group spent weeks in the company's system breaking into security networks and stealing personal data of customers and trade secrets including data compilation and database designs.

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According to reports, the credit rating company holds data of over 820 million customers and 91 million businesses across the world. Equifax's CEO Mark Begor in a statement said that he is grateful for the investigation and it is reassuring that the federal investigating agencies treat cybercrime with the seriousness it deserves. Mark also referred that data breach as state-sponsored crime, targeting Chinese authorities. FBI Deputy Director David Bowdich while talking to the media said that they can't take the accused persons in custody and neither can they try them in the court of law or lock them up. 

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The four Chinese military personnel in question are Wang Qian, Xu Ke, Liu Lei and Wu Zhiyong, who reportedly used 34 different servers in nearly 20 countries to hack through the company's system and to hide their true locations. Equifax was forced to pay $700 million in settlements to the Federal Trade Commission after their system was hacked and the then CEO of the company, Richard Smith had to tender his resignation. 

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(With inputs from agencies)