Chinese Su Bin pleads guilty to hacking U.S. military data

PanARMENIAN.Net - A 50-year-old Chinese man has pleaded guilty to being involved in a plot to hack into systems containing sensitive U.S. military data, BBC News reports.

Su Bin is believed to have been part of a group targeting data relating to fighter jets, cargo aircraft and weapons.

The U.S. Department of Justice (DoJ) said in a statement that Su sought "commercial gain" from his actions.

Su, a Chinese resident, was arrested while working in Canada in 2014. He faces five years in prison and a $250,000 fine, BBC says.

The DoJ stopped short of saying the Chinese government was involved in buying the secrets from Su and his co-conspirators.

Su admitted to working with two people in China from October 2008 to March 2014 to gain unauthorized access to protected computer networks in the US. California-based systems belonging to military contractor Boeing were among them.

Once information was stolen, the DoJ said it was illegally exported to China, BBC says.

Due to his grasp of English, Su appeared to act as a form of middle man, advising co-conspirators in China who and what to target. He also translated the English data into Chinese for the "final beneficiaries" of the stolen information.

Su reportedly ran a Chinese aviation technology company with an office in Canada. He was arrested while trying to gain Canadian citizenship.