China arrests hacking suspects on behalf of the US
You read that headline right: according to The Washington Post, China has arrested an unspecified number of suspected hackers for the US government. The suspects were taken into custody a week or so before Chinese President Xi Jinping met with President Obama in late September -- and apparently just in time for the administration to rethink its plan of imposing sanctions on the Asian superpower. An official told the WP that US intelligence agencies came up with a list of names they want arrested and then gave it to the Chinese. He said they used it as a test to see if the country's really determined to forge a set of cyberwarfare rules with the US, which would prevent either side from launching commercial espionage programs against each other. "We need to know that you're serious. So we gave them a list, and we said, 'Look, here's these guys. Round them up,'" he told the publication.
The suspects arrested were allegedly part of a state-sponsored economic espionage project, but it's not fully clear if they belong to the Chinese military unit that specializes in cyberwarfare. Also, it still remains to be seen if they'll be prosecuted and tried in court. As you may know, China has been linked to numerous security breaches against both US corporations and federal agencies in the past. That includes the massive Office of Personnel Management hack that leaked millions of federal employees' SSNs and other private info.
[Image credit: Xinhua News Agency/Getty Images]
