- The 33 -year -old man was accused of spying on the Chinese government
- The FBI alleges that it is part of the piracy of piracy of silk typhons
- If you are convicted, you could be looking at decades in jail
Italian police arrested a 33 -year -old Chinese national for allegedly spying on the United States.
Landing at Malpensa airport in Milan on a flight from China, Zewei Xu was arrested by the Local Police, and according to the Italian news agency ANSA, it is sought by the FBI for allegedly participating in cyber -forment operations for China, directing data surrounding vaccines against the covides that were occurring at the University of Texas in 2020.
Citing “Documents of the Ministry of Interior”, Ansa said that Xu is accused of being part of Hafnium, an infamous threat actor sponsored by the State also known as silk typhoon. With this group, Xu supposedly “attacked thousands of computers worldwide” to obtain information on “several government policies in the United States.”
Typhones against critical infrastructure
There will be a hearing earlier next week, in the Court of Appeals of Milan, to determine whether Xu will be extradited or not to the United States.
While his family states that he is a IT manager in the Shanghai GTA semi -finalizer, where he develops IT systems and network infrastructure, US authorities accuse XU of wire fraud and theft of aggravated identity.
If it is convicted, XU is looking for a maximum punishment of 20 years in prison, as well as five additional years for unauthorized access to protected computers.
Silk typhoon is one of the many “typhoon” groups (linen tifon, silk typhoon and others), all of which are apparently sponsored by the State and are dedicated to various forms of cybercriminal activity.
Critical infrastructure companies, government organizations, telecommunications companies and the like are the most common objectives of typhons.
In mid -April 2025, in the midst of a serious escalation of hostilities between the United States and China, senior Chinese officials apparently recognized closed doors that Beijing was involved in a series of cyber attacks on critical infrastructure of the United States, made by Volt Typhoon.
This group was infiltrating the Critical Infrastructure systems of the United States for years, including energy, communications, transport and water industries committing.
Through Bleepingcomputer
