WASHINGTON—The United States has sanctioned a dozen Chinese nationals, including two intelligence officials, for their involvement in a years-long hacking campaign to steal data from the U.S. government and undermine dissident groups.
Eight of the defendants work for i-Soon, a Chinese tech firm that hacked victims around the globe, including U.S. government agencies and dissident groups the Chinese Communist Party considers a threat, according to a news release issued by the Justice Department on March 5.
From 2016 through 2023, i-Soon breached email accounts, cellphones, servers, and websites under Beijing’s instructions and made tens of millions of dollars from it, according to the Justice Department. The company allegedly worked with 43 Chinese intelligence or police bureaus, charging somewhere between $10,000 and $75,000 for each email inbox hacked….