Italy has extradited a Chinese hacker to the United States on espionage charges for his country’s government during the COVID-19 pandemic, police said Monday. He is suspected, along with associates, of leading a hacking gang known as “Hafnium” that was accused of infiltrating tens of thousands of Microsoft Exchange email servers by 2021.
The hacker group allegedly “exploited computer flaws in Microsoft Exchange Server software” relating to e-mail conversations to “target a law firm and other entities.” The individual was seized at Milan’s Malpensa airport last July and is “suspected of acting for the Chinese government,” according to a police statement.
The FBI accuses Xu Zewei of hacking US government agencies, research institutes, and universities involved in vaccine research in 2020 and 2021, during the peak of the pandemic, according to the statement. The police did not identify the individual, but said he was the former CEO of a big technology company in Shanghai. Italian police said the suspect was arrested on a Texas warrant, citing “excellent and well-established cooperation” with the FBI as a factor in the operation’s success.
I am going through the most terrible time of my life; I am at risk of facing an unjust trial in the United States, as well as physical and psychological abuse. “Don’t extradite me,” Xu implored Judge Veronica Tallarida.
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