Florida Man Who Spied on Verizon for China Gets 4 Years in Prison

A erstwhile Verizon worker who fed accusation to Chinese information agents astir his employer, Chinese hacking operations, and pro-democracy activists surviving successful the U.S. was sentenced to 4 years successful situation connected Monday.

Ping Li, 59, pleaded blameworthy earlier this twelvemonth to conspiring to enactment arsenic an cause of China going backmost to astatine slightest 2012. His sentencing comes arsenic the U.S. cybersecurity assemblage reels from a Chinese hacking cognition that U.S. Senator Mark Warner (D-VA), the seat of the Senate Intelligence Committee, recently described arsenic the “worst telecom hack successful our nation’s history—by far.”

The operation, which compromised Verizon and different telecom giants, targeted politicians including Donald Trump and Kamala Harris and whitethorn person fixed the hacking radical Salt Typhoon, which is linked to China’s Ministry of State Security (MSS), entree to immoderate victims’ telephone audio and substance messages. The hack exploited information backdoors that the companies built into their systems to assistance home instrumentality enforcement with wiretapping requests.

Li’s sentencing statement doesn’t suggest that helium was progressive successful the Salt Typhoon hack, but his lawsuit illustrates however China has sought to infiltrate large telecoms and usage insiders to stitchery accusation astir firm operations and governmental opponents.

Li, who was calved successful China but moved to the U.S. 30 years agone and became a U.S. national 16 years ago, began moving for agents of China’s MSS astatine slightest arsenic aboriginal arsenic 2012, according to his sentencing memorandum. He traveled to the state to conscionable with a erstwhile classmate and person who worked for the MSS connected aggregate occasions and besides shared accusation with them done a assortment of online accounts.

Li shared accusation with MSS agents astir antithetic types of communications the U.S. authorities tin electronically monitor, what Verizon branches successful China were doing, and cybersecurity grooming worldly from different employer. He besides provided the agents with names and identifying details astir members of Falun Gong, a spiritual radical banned successful China, who were surviving successful the U.S. according to his plea agreement.

When the FBI arrested Li successful July, helium initially claimed that the MSS cause and erstwhile person had lone requested proposal astir investing successful the banal market, according to his plea agreement. But aft being confronted with emails helium had sent, helium admitted to conducting probe connected behalf of China and transmitting interior cybersecurity materials from his leader that helium knew helium wasn’t allowed to share.