An American citizen who immigrated from the People's Republic of China (PRC) has been sentenced to four years in prison for spying for China. The defendant shared sensitive information about his employer with China's main intelligence agency.
Ping Li , 59 , of Wesley Chapel, Florida, had been a collaborator with the Ministry of State Security (MSS) since August 2012, attempting to obtain information of interest to the Chinese government . Li worked for the well-known American telecommunications company Verizon and later for the IT company Infosys .
The first espionage charges were filed in late July 2024. A month later, Li pleaded guilty.
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“The MSS frequently uses ‘collaborative contacts’ located in countries outside the DPRK to further its intelligence objectives, which include obtaining information about foreign corporate or industrial affairs, foreign politicians, or intelligence officials. It is also interested in information about DPRK political dissidents residing in these countries,” the US Department of Justice (DoJ) said in a statement regarding the espionage case.
«These collaborative contacts help the MSS in various ways, such as conducting research on topics that can be used to further the MSS's mission».
As it turned out, Li obtained information about Chinese dissidents and pro-democracy activists, members of the Falun Gong religious movement , and non-governmental organizations based in the US. He then shared it with two MSS officers.
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He also sent information to China about training applications used by Verizon for new employees, as well as materials related to cyber training , the 2021 SolarWinds cyberattack on the US government, and publicly available information about several politicians. The communications were made using various anonymous Gmail and Yahoo! accounts .
In addition to four years in prison, Li must also pay a fine of $250,000and be on supervised release for three years.
According to the China Threat Snapshot assessment released by the Committee on Homeland Security (CHS) last month, there have been more than 55 cases of espionage related to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in 20 U.S. states.
The spies carried sensitive military information, trade secrets , and other useful information to China.
"Between 2000 and 2023, 224 incidents of Chinese espionage targeting the United States," the report said.
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Espionage
Citizen collaboration with the Chinese government for espionage is a significant problem and poses a threat to a country’s national security. This case serves as a reminder of the ongoing threat posed by such espionage campaigns and the need for enhanced cybersecurity measures to protect against them. Therefore, it is vital that government agencies and organizations remain vigilant and take the necessary steps to defenses cybersecurity. Cooperation between countries to share information and implement strong security protocols can also help mitigate the risk of such attacks in the future. Companies and organizations should also be very careful about who they hire and monitor their activities.
Source: thehackernews.com
