The United States government has taken the extraordinary step of indicting five Chinese citizens who are officers in Unit 61398 of the Third Department of the Chinese People's Liberation Army with hacking.
A grand jury in the Western District of Pennsylvania indicted the five Chinese military hackers for computer hacking, economic espionage and other offenses directed at six American victims in the U.S. nuclear power, metals and solar products industries. Those alleged victims are Westinghouse Electric Co.; U.S. subsidiaries of SolarWorld AG; United States Steel Corp.; Allegheny Technologies Inc.; the United Steel, Paper and Forestry, Rubber, Manufacturing, Energy, Allied Industrial and Service Workers International Union; and Alcoa Inc.
The indictment alleges that the defendants conspired to hack into American entities, to maintain unauthorized access to their computers and to steal information from those entities that would be useful to their competitors in China, including state-owned enterprises. In some cases, it alleges, the conspirators stole trade secrets that would have been particularly beneficial to Chinese companies at the time they were stolen. In other cases, it alleges, the conspirators also stole sensitive, internal communications that would provide a competitor, or an adversary in litigation, with insight into the strategy and vulnerabilities of the American entity.
"This is a case alleging economic espionage by members of the Chinese military and represents the first ever charges against a state actor for this type of hacking," U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder said.
An indictment is merely an accusation and a defendant in the United States is presumed innocent unless proven guilty in a court of law.
The FBI says it conducted the investigation that led to the charges in the indictment. This case is being prosecuted by the U.S. Department of Justice's National Security Division Counterespionage Section and the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Western District of Pennsylvania. No date for a court case has been set.
These Chinese media are incorrect about this stuff as they are reporting that these guys are in court already but an indictment is only an accusation and has nothing to do with if they can even go to court yet, so this shows Chinese immaturity to understand "due process" of the law and how it actually works in a real world example.
Cisco is putting spyware in their hardware at the behest of the American government
The point about Cisco is well put. However, the NSA has yet been accused of using information they steal for corporate espionage and monetary profit. In the case of the Chinese military hackers, they're trying to "turn a buck." It's unknown how high up in their military apparatus this privateering is happening.