by WorldTribune Staff / 247 Real News March 5, 2025
The U.S. State Department’s Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs on Wednesday announced it is offering a reward for information leading to the arrests and/or convictions, in any country, of Chinese hackers Yin KeCheng and Zhou Shuai.
The Chinese nationals were indicted on Wednesday by the U.S. Department of Justice for allegedly hacking a range of U.S. companies and municipalities for profit, causing millions of dollars’ worth of damage.
Victims of the hackers include U.S.-based critics of the Chinese government, Asian government foreign ministries, and U.S. federal and state agencies, the Justice Department said. Some of them were hacked as recently as last year.
The Transnational Organized Crime Rewards Program (TOCRP) reward is for up to $2 million each for information leading to the hackers’ arrest.
Yin and Zhou were identified as associated with an advanced persistent threat group (APT27), who are also known to private sector security researchers as “Threat Group 3390,” “Bronze Union,” “Emissary Panda,” “Lucky Mouse,” “Iron Tiger,” “UTA0178,” “UNC 5221,” and “Silk Typhoon.”
“Yin and Zhou are longtime members of the eco-system China uses to perpetuate its malicious cyber activity. They enrich themselves financially as hackers for hire for a myriad of Chinese entities,” the State Department said.
An FBI investigation of APT27, which began in approximately 2014, resulted in two separate indictments, announced Wednesday by the Department of Justice.
Yin is charged individually for cybercrime activity occurring from roughly 2013 to 2015, while Yin and Zhou are charged together in a separate conspiracy related to computer network intrusion activity occurring from roughly 2018 to 2020. Yin and Zhou are each charged with wire fraud, money laundering, aggravated identity theft, and violations of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act.
Also on Wednesday, the Treasury Department announced sanctions action by the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) against Zhou and his company Shanghai Heiying Information Technology.
Anyone with information is asked to contact the FBI by email at yin_zhou_info@fbi.gov.
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