U.S. Indicts Three Chinese For Alleged Cyberattacks on Moody's, Siemens -- Update

Three Chinese hackers have been indicted in the U.S. for alleged attacks on Moody's Analytics and Siemens AG in an effort to steal confidential business information as recently as May 2017, according to an indictment unsealed Monday.

The hackers allegedly targeted an unnamed "influential economist" at Moody's and forwarded the economist's emails to themselves beginning in 2011, court papers said.

The hackers also allegedly accessed Siemens's computer networks and stole around 407 gigabytes of proprietary commercial data, prosecutors said.

The three defendants are believed to be in China and aren't in U.S. custody, according to a Justice Department spokesman.

Write to Aruna Viswanatha at Aruna.Viswanatha@wsj.com

Three Chinese people have been indicted in the U.S. for alleged cyberattacks on Moody's Analytics and Siemens AG in an effort to steal confidential business information as recently as May 2017, according to an indictment unsealed Monday.

The hackers allegedly targeted an unnamed "influential economist" at Moody's and forwarded the economist's emails to themselves beginning in 2011, court papers said.

The hackers also allegedly accessed Siemens's computer networks and stole around 407 gigabytes of proprietary commercial data, prosecutors said.

The three defendants are believed to be in China and aren't in U.S. custody, according to a Justice Department spokesman.

The case appears to be similar to a 2014 indictment against five Chinese military officers, which alleged those officers hacked U.S. companies' computers to steal trade secrets. Those officers also aren't in U.S. custody, but officials said publicizing the conduct helped to curtail such behavior.

The Monday indictment doesn't specify whether the defendants are connected to the Chinese government.

The three alleged hackers -- Wu Yingzhuo, Dong Hao and Xia Lei -- work for a Guangzhou company and "purported" cybersecurity firm, Bo Yu Information Technology Company Limited, also known as Boyusec, according to the indictment. The defendants couldn't immediately be located for comment.

The hackers also allegedly targeted Trimble, a developer of GPS technology, the indictment said.

The case is being prosecuted by the U.S. Attorney's office in Pittsburgh.

Moody's Analytics is a unit of Moody's Corp.

Write to Aruna Viswanatha at Aruna.Viswanatha@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

November 27, 2017 14:24 ET (19:24 GMT)