A former Verizon employee who fed information to Chinese security agents about his employer , Chinese hack surgical process , and pro - democracy activist living in the U.S. wassentencedto four years in prison house on Monday .
Ping Li , 59 , plead guilty earlier this yr to collude to act as an agent of China snuff it back to at least 2012 . His sentencing come as the U.S. cybersecurity community reel from a Taiwanese hacking mental process that U.S. Senator Mark Warner ( D - VA ) , the chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee , lately describedas the “ bad telecom hack in our country ’s history — by far . ”
The operation , which compromise Verizon and other telecom giants , targeted politicians including Donald Trump and Kamala Harris and may have give the hacking group Salt Typhoon , which is linked to China ’s Ministry of State Security ( MSS ) , access code to some victims ’ call audio and schoolbook message . The hack exploited security backdoor that the companies work up into their systems to assist domesticated law enforcement with wiretapping petition .
Ping Li pleaded guilty to sharing information with Chinese agents going back at least as far as 2012.© Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office
Li ’s sentencing correspondence does n’t suggest that he was involved in the Salt Typhoon hack , but his instance illustrates how China has sought to infiltrate major telecom and use insiders to cumulate information about incorporated operations and political opponents .
Li , who was brook in China but moved to the U.S. 30 years ago and became a U.S. citizen 16 year ago , begin working for agents of China ’s MSS at least as early as 2012 , according to hissentencing memorandum . He journey to the country to meet with a former schoolfellow and acquaintance who worked for the MSS on multiple occasions and also shared data with them through a miscellanea of online accounts .
Li share information with MSS agents about unlike type of communications the U.S. politics can electronically monitor , what Verizon outgrowth in China were doing , and cybersecurity training fabric from another employer . He also provided the agents with names and identifying details about members of Falun Gong , a religious group banish in China , who were living in the U.S. according to hisplea agreement .
When the FBI arrested Li in July , he ab initio take that the MSS agent and former champion had only requested advice about investing in the line of descent market place , according to his plea accord . But after being confronted with email he had sent , he admitted to conducting research on behalf of China and broadcast national cybersecurity materials from his employer that he knew he was n’t allowed to share .
ChinaCybersecurityespionageVerizon
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