KUALA LUMPUR: The United States Department of Justice (DoJ) has confirmed the indictment and arrest of two Malaysian businessmen for allegedly conspiring with Chinese hackers in running global hacking operations.
Wong Ong Hua, 46 and Ling Yang Ching, 32 were nabbed in Sitiawan on Monday (Sept 14) by Malaysian authorities, after the US District Court for the District of Columbia issued arrest warrants for the duo.
In August, a federal grand jury in Washington indicted Wong and Ling for 23 counts of racketeering, conspiracy, identity theft, aggravated identity theft, access device fraud, money laundering, violations of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA), and falsely registering domain names.
The two were believed to have had committed the offences against the video game industry in the United States, France, Japan, Singapore and South Korea, through the company Sea Gamer Mall which was set up by Wong.
Wong and Ling are among the seven international defendants who were charged on Wednesday (Sept 16) by the DoJ for conducting computer intrusion campaigns on video game companies, telecommunication providers, social media companies and pro-democracy activists in Hong Kong.
The other five suspects charged were Chinese nationals, Jiang Lizhi, Qian Chuan and Fu Qiang, who worked for a China-based company, Chengdu 404 Network Technology and; Zhang Haoran and Tan Dailin, both of whom Wong and Ling were allegedly profiting from the hacking activities on video game companies in the United States, France, Japan, Singapore, and South Korea.
"The scope and sophistication of the crimes in these unsealed indictments are unprecedented. The alleged criminal scheme used actors in China and Malaysia to illegally hack, intrude and steal information from victims worldwide," acting US Attorney for the District of Columbia, Michael R. Sherwin said.
Over 100 companies, organisations and individuals in the US, Australia, Brazil, Chile, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Pakistan, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, and Vietnam have fallen prey to the hacking syndicate.
The DoJ said the defendants had also compromised foreign government computer networks in India and Vietnam, and targeted, but did not compromise, government computer networks in the United Kingdom.
The FBI Deputy Director David Bowdich lauded the cooperation of Malaysian authorities for their assistance in arresting Wong and Ling.
"The arrests in Malaysia are a direct result of the partnership, cooperation and collaboration. As the cyber threat continues to evolve larger than any one agency can address, the FBI remains committed to being an indispensable partner to our federal, international and private sector partners to stop rampant cybercrime and hold those carrying out these kinds of actions accountable," he said.
The DoJ is pursuing to extradite Wong and Ling.