Chinese national pleads guilty to stealing sensitive data from Boeing in manufacture of C-17

A Chinese national pleaded guilty Wednesday to participating in a conspiracy to hack into the computer networks of major United States defense contractors, including data related to the C-17 aircraft manufactured in Long Beach, officials said.

Su Bin, who is also known as Stephen Su and Stephen Subin, 50, a citizen and resident of the People’s Republic of China, pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Christina A. Snyder on charges related to hacking and stealing sensitive military and export-controlled data, and sending the stolen information to China, according to the Department of Justice.

He faces a maximum possible sentence of five years in federal prison and a fine of $250,000 (or twice the gross gain or gross loss resulting from the offense, whichever is greatest).

Su was initially arrested in Canada in July 2014. He ultimately waived extradition to the United States in February, officials said.

Su admitted to conspiring with two people in China from October 2008 to March 2014 to gain unauthorized access to protected computer networks in the United States, including computers belonging to the Boeing Company in Orange County, to obtain sensitive military information and to export that information illegally.

“Protecting our national security is the highest priority of the U.S. Attoey’s Office, and cybercrime represents one of the most serious threats to our national security,” said U.S. Attoey Ellen M. Decker in a statement.

As part of the conspiracy, Su would email the co-conspirators with guidance regarding the people, companies and technologies to target during their computer intrusions, the DOJ said in a release. One of Su’s co-conspirators would then gain access to information and email Su directory file listings and folders showing the data that the co-conspirator had been able to access.

Su then directed his co-conspirator as to which files and folders his co-conspirator should steal. Once the co-conspirator stole the data, including by using techniques to avoid detection, Su translated the contents of certain stolen data from English into Chinese.

In addition, Su and his co-conspirators each wrote, revised and emailed reports about the information and technology they had acquired by their hacking activities, including its value, to the final beneficiaries of their hacking activities.

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Su’s plea agreement makes clear that the information he and his co-conspirators intentionally stole included data listed on the U.S. Munitions List contained in the Inteational Traffic in Arms Regulations. Su also admitted that he engaged in the crime for the purpose of financial gain and specifically sought to profit from selling the data the he and his conspirators illegally acquired.

Judge Snyder is scheduled to sentence Su on July 13.

The case was investigated by the Cyber Division of the FBI Los Angeles Field Office’s Cyber Division with assistance from the U.S. Air Force’s Office of Special Investigations.