A Chinese teacher is accused of hacking the US companies

A Chinese man is accused of hacking three companies in the US, as well as attacking the US government computers, New York Times reported. Yu Pingan (36) and two Chinese men used the malicious code Sakula for the attack on the Office of Personnel Management and insurance companies.

The details about the attack

In 2015, former US President Barack Obama made an agreement with Chinese President Xi Jinping to stop any cyber thefts. President Obama noted that such actions will lead to punishment and sanctions.

On Tuesday, the federal court stated that the companies, suffered from the cyber attack, are situated in Los Angeles, San Diego, and Massachusetts.

Hackers got access to the aerospace and energy industries, the personal information of government workers and insurance databases, as well as fingerprints of millions of citizens.

According to Reuters, although Sakula could be used by different organizations, all its targets witness that the Chinese government was interested in them. The Chinese Foreign Ministry officials claimed that they had not been aware of the situation, and a spokeswoman noted that China is against any forms of criminal internet activity.

Who is Yu Pingan?

Yu Pingan, who has the online pseudonym GoldSun, is an expert in computer programming and computer science teacher. He also sold hacking tools and provided Sakula's versions to at least two men.

He used the damaging software in December 2012 for the first time. During the investigation, the F.B.I. found out that it had been used in November 2012 before, so it is possible that Yu Pingan acted not alone and has a team. Vice president of cyber security company CrowdStrike Inc. Adam Meyers said that the software had been worked on “a number of high-profile targets,” Fox News reported.

The FBI found out that Yu took part in making the plan for the installation of RAT (remote access trojan) at one company in summer 2011. In a year, one of the hackers in his team installed the software for a company in San Diego. This company was attacked one more time in 2013.

Yu was arrested at the Los Angeles International Airport.

The federal court started the first hearing in San Diego on Tuesday. Yu will stay in jail waiting for his next hearing in the court next week.

According to Yu’s lawyer Michael Berg, the suspect came to the US for a conference, and being a teacher, he has nothing common with China’s government. Nevertheless, the court claimed that Yu knew that the software had been used for the hacks during 2010-2015.