Chinese Hacker Suspected of Microsoft Email Attacks Arrested in Italy

The Italian authorities have arrested a Chinese citizen to whom the United States accused the United States that the Outlook e-mail service has been attacked by Microsoft’s e-mail service in order to obtain data on research on vaccines against the coronavirus.

Arrest at Milan Airport Malpensa

A 33-year-old Chinese was arrested a week ago at Malpensa Airport in Milan, against which an international arrest warrant from the United States was available. The man was presumably part of a hacker group called “Hafnium” supported by the Chinese government, which is said to have illegally gained access to Microsoft’s email services in 2021.

At that time, China tried to access Sars Covid-19 with a broadly created campaign for industrial espionage to access information to develop new vaccines. The man, whose last name is XU, is said to have been part of this hacking campaign as part of “Hafnium”, which is why he was charged in nine points in the United States Financial Times.

Attacks on Microsoft 2020 and 2021

He is said to have carried out attacks against computer systems in western countries as a member of “Hafnium” from February 2020 to June 2021. The US authorities had accused China several times at the weddings of Corona pandemic to want to steal data on research institutions on research institutions. As early as the summer of 2020, the US Justice Ministry had charged two other Chinese citizens because they were supposedly part of a Chinese program for obtaining research results from the United States for many years. China always claimed that the allegations from the United States lacked any basis and that one would not need any help from the West based on their own research efforts.

Microsoft was apparently primarily affected by the alleged hacking attacks from China because the company also operates the e-mail servers of various US government and research institutions through its cloud servers. The Italian police have confirmed that there is an extradition request from the USA for XU. The corresponding processes for the processing of the delivery process are said to have started this week, the report.