Italy Extradites Chinese Hacker to US for COVID Research Theft

0:00It's April 26. This is U.S. News Today, powered by AI, your country, in real time. I'm Cory with the story. Italy's government just approved extra-diting a Chinese national named Shuzhou-e to the United States on serious hacking charges. U.S. authorities won him for stealing vital COVID-19 medical research, including data on vaccines and treatments. This comes after an Italian court ruled earlier this month that he could be sent over. You got arrested in Milan back on July 3 at the request of the U.S. Justice Department, facing counts of wire fraud, an aggravated identity theft. Tied to cyber attacks from February 2020 to June 2021. Shuzhou's lawyer claims it's all a case of mistaken identity and says his client hasn't heard a word about the extradition decision yet. Italy's government isn't commenting on the move. Meanwhile, prosecutors alleged Shuzhou worked for the Chinese government, leading a team that hit U.S. universities, immunologists, and biologists during.

1:02The height of the pandemic. Later, in 2021, he joined a cyber group called Hathnium that broke into thousands of computers around the world. As this plays out, it'll test international cooperation on cyber threats, especially those targeting health research that still echoes today.