Rachel Stevens, FISM News 

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The U.S. Justice Department said on Wednesday it charged five Chinese residents and two Malaysian businessmen accused of being a part of a wide-ranging hacking effort against various U.S. tech companies.

Federal prosecutors said five Chinese nationals had been charged with hacking more than 100 companies in the United States and abroad, including software development companies, computer manufacturers, telecommunications providers, social media companies, video game companies, nonprofit organizations, and universities. Think tanks and as well as foreign governments and pro-democracy politicians and activists in Hong Kong.

The government also said two Malaysian businessmen, Wong Ong Hua, 46, and Ling Yang Ching, 32, were charged with conspiring with two of the Chinese hackers profiting from computer intrusions targeting video game companies in the United States, France, Japan, Singapore, and South Korea.

The Justice Department said the pair operated through Malaysian firm, SEA Gamer Mall. Messages left with the company over the phone or to email accounts maintained by the hackers were not immediately returned. The Chinese Embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to a request for comments.

The Justice Department said it obtained search warrants this month resulting in the seizure of hundreds of accounts, servers, domain names and “dead drop” Web pages used by the hackers to help siphon data from their victims.

The Department said Microsoft had developed measures to block the hackers and that the company’s actions “were a significant part” of the overall U.S. effort to neutralize them.

Sourced from Reuters