[20200310]LSB10417_红军Equifax黑客被起诉 .pdf

CRS Legal Sidebar Prepared for Members and Committees of Congress Legal SidebarLegal Sidebari i Red Army Equifax Hackers Indicted March 10, 2020 A federal grand jury has indicted four members of the Chinese Peoples Liberation Army (PLA) for hacking into the Equifax computer system and stealing the personal identifying information of “nearly 150 million Americans.” The indictments charge offenses under federal wire fraud, computer intrusion, economic espionage, and conspiracy laws. Attorney General Barrs statement announcing the indictment noted that 80% of federal economic espionage prosecutions have implicated the Chinese government. The indictment presents a partial view of the criminal law consequences that may attend a mass data breach, but the indictment is likely designed for purposes other than eventual prosecution. Background Equifax conducts credit checks on behalf of financial institutions and other business entities. The indictment and an earlier House committee majority staff report allege that the four defendants accessed an Equifax server in Georgia through a system backdoor. Once in, they spent several weeks sweeping the system for the names, addresses, birth dates,