CASE DOSSIER fugitive

U.S. v. Sun Kailiang et al. (PLA Unit 61398 / APT1)

Docket: 2:14-cr-00118 Court: U.S. District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania Opened: 2014-05-01 Sector: Nuclear Energy, Metals, Manufacturing, Clean Energy

Key Facts

Status

FUGITIVE

Legal disposition

Loss Amount

$100.0 million

Theft of proprietary nuclear reactor designs, solar panel technology, and commercial negotiation strategies.

Techniques

Verified mappings

Defendants

Named in charges

Legal Status: FUGITIVE in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania.
Primary Target Sector: Nuclear Energy, Metals, Manufacturing, Clean Energy.
Documented Financial Loss: $100.0 million.
2 verified MITRE ATT&CK techniques substantiated with verbatim court excerpts.

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Case Summary

Historic first-ever criminal indictment against state military actors: five Chinese military officers in People's Liberation Army Unit 61398 charged with cyber espionage against Westinghouse, U.S. Steel, Alcoa, and the United Steelworkers union.

Procedural & Incident Timeline

2014-05-01 indictment

Grand jury unseals 31-count indictment against five PLA Unit 61398 military officers.

2015-09-25 sanction

Cyber espionage agreement signed between U.S. and PRC following sustained enforcement pressure.

Named Defendants & Operatives

Defendant	Nationality	Status	Prison Term	Restitution	Notes
Sun Kailiang	People's Republic of China	fugitive	Pending	None	PLA Unit 61398 military officer indicted in W.D. Pa. for economic cyber espionage.
Wang Dong	People's Republic of China	fugitive	Pending	None	PLA Unit 61398 hacker indicted for intruding into U.S. commercial energy and manufacturing networks.

Substantiated MITRE ATT&CK Techniques

Technique ID	Technique Name & Tactic	Primary Source Evidence Excerpt	Locator	Verification
T1566.001	Spearphishing Attachment Initial Access	"Defendants sent spearphishing emails containing malicious attachments to corporate engineers, appearing to come from colleagues or trade groups."	Indictment ¶ 15, Page 7	reviewed
T1041	Exfiltration Over C2 Channel Exfiltration	"Exfiltrated thousands of sensitive proprietary technical specifications including AP1000 nuclear reactor piping diagrams."	Indictment ¶ 29, Page 16	reviewed

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Bluebook Legal Citation:

Cyberattack Case Library, U.S. v. Sun Kailiang et al. (PLA Unit 61398 / APT1), No. 2:14-cr-00118 (U.S. District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania 2014), https://cyberattackcaselibrary.pages.dev/cases/us-v-sun-kailiang-pla-unit-61398/

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