The New York Times Features Peter Zeidenberg’s Cybersecurity Case
On Sunday, The New York Times published a feature story on White Collar & Investigations partner Peter Zeidenberg’s client who was accused of spying for China and illegally downloading data from a government website.
Mr. Zeidenberg was able to persuade the government to dismiss all charges only days before the trial was set to begin. To read the NYT article, click here.
Mr. Zeidenberg represented Sherry Chen, an Ohio hydrologist who was accused of illegally downloading sensitive files from the National Inventory of Dams, which includes information on more than 85,000 dams. Federal prosecutors claimed before the United States District Court for the Southern District of Ohio that it was possibly done on behalf of Chinese officials.
The NYT reported that, “For the last few years, government officials have noted with growing alarm that Chinese hackers and paid insiders were spiriting trade secrets and other confidential information out of the United States. The mantra, these days, is that there are only two types of companies left in this country: those that have been hacked by China, and those that do not know they have been hacked by China.”
A week before trial was to begin, Mr. Zeidenberg told the NYT that he requested a meeting with two United States attorneys for the Southern District of Ohio. “Why,” Mr. Zeidenberg said he asked, “if she’s a spy, is she coming back from China and telling her colleagues that ‘I met this guy in China and this is what he wants to know’? Why is she telling the guy in China, ‘Here’s my boss’s phone number’? Why is she asking for a password over email? Why would you do that?”
Mr. Zeidenberg told the NYT that the prosecutors listened. On March 10, the day after their meeting, they dismissed the charges. “Thank God,” Mr. Zeidenberg added.
