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Today we are here to announce that for
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the first time in many years, an alleged
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Chinese state sponsored hacker has been
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arrested for computer intrusion crimes
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against institutions in the United
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In 2023, a grand jury here in Houston
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returned a sealed indictment against Shu
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Zouer and his defendant Zang Yu for
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offenses arising from the hacking of
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computers at three universities, two of
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which are located here in the Southern
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District of Texas, as well as the
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hacking of a major international law
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firm based in Washington DC.
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This indictment alleges that Chu along
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with others operated under the control
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and direction of the Chinese state
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security bureau as part of a state
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sponsored hacking group known as Haflia
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or Silk Typhoon. It is alleged that the
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State Security Bureau would assign
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targets to Shu both organizations and
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individuals with the instruction for him
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to hack the accounts and seek out
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specific information.
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The conduct alleged in this case began
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in February 2020 at a time just before
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CO took firm hold in the United States
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but had already begun to rage throughout
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China despite the Chinese government's
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insistence a few weeks earlier that the
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virus could not be spread from person to
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person. The indictment alleges that Shu
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was ordered to hack into specific
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American universities and mailboxes of
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particular individuals at those
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universities, including veriologists and
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immunologists who are conducting COVID
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She was alleged to have penetrated the
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various schools exchange servers by
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exploiting vulnerabilities and software
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to surreptitiously insert pieces of code
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or script known as web shells into
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targeted accounts, allowing the hackers
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continued access to the accounts email
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and to the information contained
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Once Shu obtained access to these
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targeted accounts, he was able to copy
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gigabytes of COVID research, which he
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then transferred to his state security
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bureau handlers. In October 2020, she
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was also alleged to have hacked into the
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email of a major DCbased international
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law firm, doing so to access and export
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confidential information about the
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firm's clients, specifically US policy
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makers, government agencies, and
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political actors. Some of the searches
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that Shu was alleged to have conducted,
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including during the cyber intrusion,
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including the search terms Hong Kong,
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Chinese sources, and MSS, refer
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referring to China's Ministry of State
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Security. Although the Chinese state
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sponsored hackers are on occasion
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indicted by the Department of Justice,
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it is exceedingly rare, indeed, it is
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virtually unheard of, to actually get
