A Louisiana
woman shot her boyfriend who refused to argue with her on Saturday morning,
police said.
A certain
Ghanaian slay queen’s burial photos have been making the rounds online. This is
because of the unique coffin that was used to bury her.
The photos
show the late slay queen (name with-held) been buried in a pen*s shaped coffin.
This photo
has sparked reactions among social media users.
The photos
were shared by a Ghanaian blog.
In another
news, US charges two Chinese spies for a global hacking campaign that targeted
COVID-19 vaccine research.
U.S.
prosecutors have charged two wanted Chinese nationals linked to Beijing for
their alleged involvement in a global hacking operation that targeted hundreds
of companies and governments for more than a decade, stealing sensitive
information.
The 11-count
indictment unsealed on Tuesday, July 22, alleges Li Xiaoyu, 34, and Dong
Jiazhi, 33, said to be working for China’s state intelligence bureau,stole
terabytes of data from high-technology companies, around the world including the United States, the prosecutors
said.
The
prosecutors accused the hackers of recently targeting the networks of over a
dozen U.S. companies in Maryland, Massachusetts, and California developing
vaccines and treatments for COVID-19.
The
indictment comes just weeks after both the FBI and Homeland Security warned
that China was actively trying to steal U.S. research data related to the
coronavirus pandemic.
The hackers
were first discovered after they targeted a U.S. Department of Energy network
in Hanford, Washington, the Justice Department said.
The
prosecutors said the hackers also targeted companies in Australia, South Korea,
and several European nations, using known but unpatched vulnerabilities in
widely used web server software to break into their victims’ networks. By
gaining a foothold onto the network, the hackers installed password-stealing
software to gain deeper access to their systems.
The
prosecutors also said that the hackers would “frequently” return to the
networks — in some cases years later.
According to
the indictment, the hackers stole “hundreds of millions of dollars” worth of
trade secrets and intellectual property. The prosecutors also allege that the
hackers stole data related to military satellite programs, military wireless
networks and high-powered microwave and laser systems from defense contractors.
The hackers
are said to have targeted their victims on behalf of China’s intelligence
services, but also hacked for personal financial gain.
In one case,
prosecutors said the hackers “sought to extort cryptocurrency” from a victim
company by threatening to publish the victim’s stolen source code online.
John C.
Demers, U.S. assistant attorney general for national security, said that the
indictments were “concrete examples” of how China used hackers to “rob,
replicate and replace” non-Chinese companies in the global marketplace.
Demers also
accused China of providing a safe-haven for the hackers.
“China has
now taken its place, alongside Russia, Iran and North Korea, in that shameful club
of nations that provide a safe haven for cyber criminals in exchange for those
criminals being ‘on call’ to work for the benefit of the state, here to feed
the Chinese Communist party’s insatiable hunger for American and other
non-Chinese companies’ hard-earned intellectual property, including COVID-19
research,” said Demers.
Mandiant, the
incident response division of security firm FireEye, said it has tracked the
hackers since 2013 and the tactics, techniques, and procedures used by the
hackers is “consistent” with its findings.
“The Chinese
government has long relied on contractors to conduct cyber intrusions,” said
Ben Read, senior manager of analysis at Mandiant, in an email. “Using these
freelancers allows the government to access a wider array of talent, while also
providing some deniability in conducting these operations.”
“The pattern
described in the indictment where the contractors conducted some operations on
behalf of their government sponsors, while others were for their own profit is
consistent with what we have seen from other China-nexus groups such as APT41,”
he said, referring to the Chinese advanced persistent threat group associated
with the indictment.
If
prosecuted, the wanted hackers could each face more than 40 years in prison.
But prosecutors believe the hackers are in China, and extraditions to the U.S.
are unlikely because of the strained relationship between China and the US.
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