Threat Management, Threat Intelligence, Malware, Threat Management

Chinese national arrested in relation to OPM breach

U.S. officials arrested a Chinese national who is accused of being involved in the 2015 Office of Personnel Management (OPM) breach that compromised the data of nearly four million people.

 Authorities arrested 36-year-old Yu Pingan of Shanghai on Aug. 21 when he flew into Los Angeles International Airport after he was accused of conspiring with others to use the Sakula malware in a series of cyberattacks against unnamed U.S. companies, according to court documents.

While the OPM breach wasn't mention specifically in the indictment, Sakula was used in the OPM breach and authorities said Yu used “rare” hacking tools including the named malware and said Yu was involved in cyberattacks occurred between 2014 and 2015.

An FBI official said he believed Yu provided versions of Sakula to two unnamed men that he knew would be used to carry out attacks on the firms, in an affidavit linked to the complaint.

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