A plethora of captivating elements can be found in this narrative:

On Wednesday, the US Department of Justice revealed the charging of 12 Chinese individuals accused of over ten years of hacking activities globally, comprising eight employees from the contractor i-Soon, two officials from China’s Ministry of Public Security who allegedly collaborated with them, and two additional purported hackers believed to be associated with the Chinese hacking collective APT27, also known as Silk Typhoon, which prosecutors assert was linked to the breach of the US Treasury that occurred late last year.

[…]

Prosecutors claim that the collective as a unit has zeroed in on US state and federal institutions, foreign ministries throughout Asia, Chinese dissidents, US media organizations that have scrutinized the Chinese regime, and most recently the US Treasury, which experienced a breach between September and December of the preceding year. An internal Treasury document acquired by Bloomberg News revealed that the intruders had infiltrated at least 400 of the agency’s computers, extracting over 3,000 documents during the breach.

The charges draw attention to how, in certain instances, the hackers operated with an unexpected level of independence, even selecting their own targets prior to selling the pilfered data to clients within the Chinese government. The indictment involving Yin Kecheng, who was previously penalized by the Treasury Department in January for his role in the Treasury breach, includes excerpts from his exchanges with a peer where he expresses his personal inclination towards hacking American targets and his aspiration to ‘break into a major target,’ which he hoped would enable him to earn sufficient funds to purchase a vehicle.