William Barr says China has voracious appetite for personal data of Americans

The US charges against suspected Chinese military hackers resembles a 2014 indictment that accused five members of the People's Liberation Army of hacking into American corporations to steal trade secrets.

U.S. authorities also suspect China in the 2015 breach of the federal Office of Personnel Management and of intrusions into the Marriott hotel chain and health insurer Anthem.

Such hacks “seem to deliberately cast a wide net” so that Chinese intelligence analysts can get deep insight into the lives of Americans, said Ben Buchanan, a Georgetown University scholar and author of the upcoming book “The Hacker and the State.”

“This could be especially useful for counterintelligence purposes, like tracking American spies posted to Beijing,” Buchanan said. 

US Attorney General William Barr, who at an event last week warned of Beijing’s aspirations of economic dominance, said Monday the U.S. has long “witnessed China’s voracious appetite for the personal data of Americans.”

“This kind of attack on American industry is of a piece with other Chinese illegal acquisitions of sensitive personal data,” Barr said.

The criminal charges, which include conspiracy to commit computer fraud and conspiracy to commit economic espionage, were filed in federal court in Atlanta.

Equifax last year reached a US$700 million settlement over the data breach, with the bulk of the funds intended for consumers affected by it.

Equifax officials told the Government Accountability Office the company made many mistakes, including having an outdated list of computer systems administrators. The company didn’t notice the intruders targeting its databases for more than six weeks. Hackers exploited a known security vulnerability that Equifax hadn’t fixed.

While company stock has recovered, Equifax’s reputation has not fully. The company was dragged in front of Congress no less than four times to explain what happened.

The company is about to start paying out claims on its US$700 million settlement, of which more claimants have opted in to getting a cash settlement than accept credit counseling. So many claims have been made for the cash that the lawyers suing Equifax and the Federal Trade Commission have warned claimants that the chance of getting the full cash value of the settlement was unlikely.-AP