Chinese national charged for spear phishing campaign against NASA

The Department of Justice (DOJ) has indicted Song Wu, a 39-year-old Chinese national, for wire fraud, aggravated identity theft, and fraud to obtain software and source code created by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).

Song allegedly was involved in a spear phishing email campaign. He created numerous email accounts to impersonate American researchers and engineers. Then, he used these accounts to obtain ‘specialized restricted or proprietary software used for aerospace engineering and computational fluid dynamics.’ The software he was after could be used for both civilian and military applications.

With these fake accounts, Song sent spear-phishing emails to employees working for NASA, the U.S. Air Force, the Navy, the Army, and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). Research universities in Georgia, Michigan, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Indiana, and Ohio also received spear phishing emails, as well as companies in the private sector that work with the aerospace field.

According to the indictment, Song worked as an engineer at the Aviation Industry Corporation of China (AVIC), a Chinese state-owned aerospace and defense conglomerate. In his spear phishing emails, he requested employees in the engineering community to send him source code or software he believed they had access to.

Song is being charged with 14 counts of wire fraud, 14 accounts of aggravated identity theft, and attempting to steal confidential and sensitive data from the aerospace sector. If found guilty, he could face a maximum sentence of twenty years in prison for each count of wire fraud. Aggravated identity theft could lead to a two-year consecutive prison sentence.

“Efforts to obtain our nation’s valuable research software pose a grave threat to our national security. However, this indictment demonstrates that borders are not barriers to prosecuting bad actors who threaten our national security,” United States Attorney Ryan K. Buchanan stated.

The Department of Justice did not name the software Song was after, nor did it say where the suspect is currently located. The FBI and NASA’s Office of Inspector General are still investigating the case.