The government of China says it has captured the hackers responsible for breaching the Office of Personnel Management database, a giant theft of data from millions of people that was revealed earlier this year.
The hackers were arrested in September and were previously reported to have been linked to data breaches in U.S. companies. However, the Washington Post reports that the Chinese government now says the individuals are suspected of being the hackers who targeted OPM, according to anonymous U.S. officials familiar with the arrests.
The identities of the arrested individuals have not been revealed.
OPM first reported the intrusions in June, and it was later disclosed that the personal information of 22.1 million current and former federal employees was stolen. Anonymous U.S. officials had said that hackers in China were a leading suspect for the breach.
In recent months, cybersecurity disputes between the U.S. and China escalated due to continued hacking incidents, including reports of a hack in September on U.S. companies one day after President Obama and Chinese President Xi Jinping made an agreement that neither country would hack companies. Beijing has repeatedly denied its involvement in any such hacks.
Though it remains unclear if the hackers arrested were government-affiliated, Chinese officials characterized the arrests as criminal and not state-sponsored, and that they would prosecute the individuals.
