Two hackers allegedly working for the Chinese government have been indicted by the U.S. Department of Justice over allegations that they were involved in global computer intrusion campaign over the last 10 years.

Li Xiaoyu, 34, and Dong Jiazhi, 33, are accused in the 11-count indictment of hacking into computer systems of hundreds of companies, governments, nongovernment organizations and individuals on behalf of China’s Ministry of State Security and at other times for their own personal gain.

Targeted industries are alleged to include high-tech manufacturing; medical device, civil and industrial engineering; business, educational and gaming software makers; solar energy companies; pharmaceutical companies; and defense providers. Targeted companies included those in the U.S. as well as Australia, Belgium, Germany, Japan, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Spain, South Korea, Sweden and the U.K.

According to the indictment, in at least one case the pair sought to extort cryptocurrency from a target by threatening to release stolen code online. While not directly saying so, the suggestion is that they were involved in ransomware campaigns.

“China has now taken its place, alongside Russia, Iran and North Korea, in that shameful club of nations that provide a safe haven for cybercriminals in exchange for those criminals being ‘on call’ to work for the benefit of the state, here to feed the Chinese Communist party’s insatiable hunger for American and other non-Chinese companies’ hard-earned intellectual property, including COVID-19 research,” Assistant Attorney General for National Security John C. Demers said in a statement.

The Associated Press reported that the indictments are part of a broader campaign by the Trump administration to target China, but filing indictments against alleged foreign hackers is nothing new.

Four people, including two Russians, were indicted by the justice department in March 2017 for the infamous Yahoo Inc. hack, and three Chinese nationals were indicted in November 2017 for allegedly hacking Moody’s Corp., Siemens AG and Trimble Inc. between 2011 and 2017. More recently, in March two Chinese nationals were indicted for their alleged role in laundering cryptocurrency for the infamous North Korean Lazarus hacking group.

Mostly the indictments are not much better than virtue signaling since there’s next to zero chance that those indicted will ever be arrested by U.S. authorities. That said, it does limit those indicted from traveling to countries that have extradition treaties with the U.S.

Image: Nellis Airforce Base