Chinese national arrested by FBI in connection to hacking charge
A Chinese national was arrested by the FBI on charges they say connect him to distributing malicious software like the one used in a 2015 hack, CBS News has confirmed.
Yu Pingan was captured Monday night at Los Angeles International Airport and appeared in the Southern District of California Court on Wednesday, according to officials.
The FBI obtained Yu's resume via a search warrant. According to the FBI, he was born December 16, 1980, lives in Shanghai, China, and his expertise includes computer network security and computer programming.
The FBI accuses him of conspiring with at least two others to use software known as Sakula -- similar to the kind to breach the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) to obtain records of millions of American government employees, U.S. authorities said.
"Defendant Yu and co-conspirators ... would acquire and use malicious software tools, some of which were rare variants previously unidentified by the FBI and information security community, including a malicious software tool known as Sakula," the court documents read.
The complaint filed by the FBI lists unidentified companies that were affected by the Sakula malware were in areas such as San Diego, Calif.; Massachusetts; Los Angeles, Calif.; and Arizona.
In the wake of the OPM breach, then-chief Katherine Archuleta resigned in July 2015 after nearly 22 million personnel records were stolen. At the time, hackers also stole information about people's financial, personal and employment histories. They stole information about 19.7 million Americans who were subjected to federal background checks as a condition of employment, as well as 1.8 million Americans who were listed as family members or friends of those applicants.
CBS News' Katie Ross Dominick contributed to this report.
