In a first, Chinese hackers siphon off $20 million from US COVID Fund

New Delhi: In a first, a hacker group allegedly associated with the Chinese government has reportedly stolen at least $20 million from the Covid Relief Fund of the United States, agencies reported via secret service sources. As per reports, a hacking group called APT41 managed to steal millions of dollars from said fund that included small business loans and unemployment funds of over a dozens states here. The group is reportedly based in Chengdu and the officials told ABC News that several investigations into pandemic frauds are pointing back to foreign-state hackers. This marks the first known case of cybercrime related to pandemic fraud with foreign connection (in this case China), that the U.S. government has acknowledged publicly. However, the US cyber security officials fear that there might be more of such frauds, the report added. The Secret Service has however declined to confirm the scope of other investigations, saying there are more than 1,000 ongoing investigations involving transnational and domestic criminals defrauding public benefits programs, and APT41 is “a notable player.” Apparently, the thefts began in mid-2020 and hacked into at least 2,000 accounts and made 40,000 financial transactions. Roy Dotson, national pandemic fraud recovery coordinator for the Secret Service told NBC News, “It would be crazy to think this group didn’t target all 50 states.” One former director of the National Counterintelligence, reportedly a subsidiary of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and Security Center namely William Evanina said: “Once you are in these systems with intent to promulgate theft" of personally identifying information, Evanina said, “you’re in forever,” noting that at the state and local levels, many disparate systems share an interconnected domain. “Unless,” he said, “you tear down the systems and replace everything.” Maryland Labor Secretary Tiffany Robinson said: “If we can come together and really have open and honest conversations about what works well and what went very wrong, we would just be in a much better place to stop this,” she said, adding that her state’s system is still bogged down by thousands of fraudulent applications and phone calls each week. Reportedly, the Federal officials have acknowledged that they are nowhere close to fully accounting for what really happened to benefits programs in the pandemic. “A lot of these criminals, we’ll never be able to indict and locate,” said a federal law enforcement official with direct knowledge of fraud investigations involving China-based hackers. “With the internet and the dark web, it’s borderless.”