A former Chinese businessman was sentenced to 46 months in prison Wednesday for his participation in a conspiracy to steal sensitive U.S. military data, according to a Justice Department report.
Su Bin assisted two Chinese military officers in hacking the computer networks of major U.S. defense contractors.
Su told the officers whom to target, which files to steal, and explained to them why the information was significant.
In addition, after the conspirators successfully stole the necessary data, Su translated the contents of the data from English to Chinese before sending the information to China.
The Justice Department stated that some of the data that was stolen related to the C-17 strategic transport aircraft and certain U.S. military fighter jets.
“Su assisted the Chinese military hackers in their efforts to illegally access and steal designs for cutting-edge military aircraft that are indispensable to our national defense,” Assistant Attorney General for National Security John Carlin said.
Su pleaded guilty to conspiring to gain unauthorized access to a protected computer and violating the Arms Export Control Act in March.
He also admitted that he committed the crime for financial gain, and he sought to make a profit from selling the data.
