NASA Employees Duped in Chinese Phishing Scheme Targeting U.S. Defense Software

A Chinese national posed as a U.S. researcher in a multi-year spear-phishing campaign to steal sensitive defense technology and aerospace design software from NASA, U.S. military agencies, universities, and private firms.

• •Song Wu, an engineer at China's state-owned AVIC, orchestrated the scheme from 2017 to 2021, targeting dozens of researchers and engineers
• •The campaign involved masquerading as colleagues to gain access to proprietary software and source code
• •Common red flags included multiple requests for the same software, suspicious wire transfer payment methods, and unconventional shipping approaches
• •Song Wu has been indicted on wire fraud and 14 counts of aggravated identity theft, with a maximum 20-year sentence per count
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