U.S. charges 7 in wide-ranging Chinese hacking effort

The U.S. Justice Department said Wednesday that it had charged five Chinese residents and two Malaysian businessmen in a wide-ranging hacking effort.

Federal prosecutors said five Chinese nationals had been charged with hacking over 100 companies in the United States and abroad, including software development companies, computer manufacturers, telecommunications providers, social media companies, video game companies, non-profit organizations, universities, think tanks as well as foreign governments and pro-democracy politicians and activists in Hong Kong. The government also said two Malaysian businessmen were charged with conspiring with two of the Chinese hackers to profit from computer intrusions targeting the video game industry.