Hacker who allegedly carried out cyberattacks for China is extradited to US

A man accused of carrying out cyberattacks on behalf of the Chinese government has been extradited to the United States, and faces over a decade in prison if convicted. 

Last year, the U.S. Justice Department accused Xu Zewei of working as a contractor for the Chinese Ministry of State Security to conduct a series of cyberattacks. Prosecutors alleged Xu and co-conspirator Zhang Yu targeted several U.S. universities in early 2020 to steal research related to the COVID-19 pandemic. The two also allegedly hacked thousands of email servers running Microsoft Exchange beginning March 2021, as part of an “indiscriminate” campaign attributed to a Chinese-backed hacking group known as Hafnium, and later Silk Typhoon.