Chinese police arrest trio of alleged hackers who stole $87m in crypto assets

Chinese police last week arrested three alleged hackers who are believed to have stolen cryptocurrencies worth around $87m the Xinhua news agency reported at the weekend.

Chinese hackers alleged to stolen $87m in crypto assets arrested

Three individuals were arrested by police in the provinces of Hunan and Changchun and the capital city Beijing after an investigation that lasted around a month.

Xinhua’s report stated that a complaint was made to the police as early as March by a victim who said his computer had been hacked and up to $14.5m in cryptocurrencies had been stolen.

Internet companies aid

With the assistance of several high-profile internet companies – which were not named in the report – police located a suspect called Zhou who allegedly hacked the victim’s computer remotely to remove the digital tokens. Two accomplices of Zhou were later identified.

Following further investigations, police said they had uncovered a series of illegal cyber security breaches of corporate and personal computer networks that involved the theft of an estimated 600m yuan – or $87m.

Police said the case was still under investigation and it is believed that further arrests could be made.