U.S. charges three Chinese with hacking Siemens, Trimble, Moody's

(Reuters) - A U.S. jury has indicted three people affiliated with a Chinese cyber security firm on computer fraud charges, saying they hacked into the networks of Siemens AG, Trimble Inc and Moodys Analytics.

The indictment, which was unsealed on Monday, charged that three defendants and others participated in “coordinated and unauthorized” cyber attacks in order to steal confidential business information and intentionally cause damage to those computer systems.

The three defendants were identified as Wu Yingzhuo, Dong Hao and Xia Lei. The indictment said they were owners, employees and associates of Guangzhou Bo Yu Information Technology Company Ltd, a firm in the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou that offers cyber security services.

The indictment in federal court in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, accused the three of exploiting vulnerabilities in computer systems or using malware to gain access to confidential business and commercial information, work product, and sensitive employee information including user names and passwords. It said the three sent “spearphishing” emails to computers in western Pennsylvania and around the world.