WASHINGTON — The US Justice Department announced Friday the arrest of a Chinese national who allegedly stole trade secrets from a US oil company he worked for. Tan Hongjin, 35, was arrested on Thursday in Oklahoma where he lived as a permanent resident. The employer was not identified, but a LinkedIn page identifies a materials scientist named Tan Hongjin as working for the Bartlesville, Oklahoma research center of Phillips 66, and Oklahoma media also linked him to the company. The arrest came amid a broad US crackdown on Chinese government-backed hacking and theft of commercial data and secrets. On Thursday the Justice Department unveiled indictments against two hackers allegedly tied to Beijing’s security services who operated as part of a multi-year plan to break into the computers of dozens of US companies and agencies.

Source: Philippine Daily Inquirer December 22, 2018 00:06 UTC