"A Chinese national [Su Bin] pleaded guilty today to participating in a years-long conspiracy to hack into the computer networks of major US defense contractors, steal sensitive military and export-controlled data and send the stolen data to China," the release, issued on Wednesday, stated.
Su, a China-based aerospace businessman, also known as Stephen Su and Stephen Subin, admitted to playing a role in a scheme to steal military technical data related to the Boeing C-17 strategic transport aircraft as well as US fighter jets, according to the release.
The release noted that Su worked with two individuals in China from 2008 to 2014 to gain unauthorized access to computer networks belonging to US defense contractors, including Boeing.
"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," the release added.
Su faces a maximum sentence of five years in prison, according to the release, and a fine of $250,000 or "twice the gross gain or gross loss resulting from the offense, whichever is greatest."
In recent years, US businesses and government agencies have fallen victim to numerous cyberattacks from a variety of actors with criminal, economic or political motivations.
In 2015, cyberattacks compromising the personal data of more than 21 million current and former US government employees have been attributed to Chinese hackers, a claim China has rejected.
