The U.S. Justice Department has confirmed the arrest of Xu Zewei, a Chinese national accused of hacking on behalf of the Chinese government.
Xu is indicted on nine charges, including the theft of COVID-19 research from U.S. universities in February 2020.
He and another individual are also accused of mass hacks of Microsoft Exchange servers starting in March 2021, affecting over 60,000 servers.
Xu's company, Shanghai Powerock Network, allegedly conducted hacking operations for the Chinese government.
The hacking group, known as Hafnium, targeted small businesses across the United States, stealing private company information.
Hafnium has since launched a new hacking campaign, dubbed Silk Typhoon, targeting big companies and government agencies.