The F-35 Heist: How Chinese Hackers Stole a Fighter Jet |

Описание: The F-35 Heist: How Chinese Hackers Stole a $400 Billion Fighter Jet
The F-35 Lightning II is the most expensive and ambitious military project in history, with a development cost of around $400 billion
. But instead of an action-movie break-in, spies stole its most guarded secrets using social engineering and malicious spear-phishing links
.
In this three-part documentary series, we explore how Chinese hackers bypassed Lockheed Martin's strict security by targeting vulnerable small machine shops and subcontractors in the jet's complex, "Byzantine" global supply chain
. Led by a likable Canadian-resident businessman named Su Bin and military hackers tied to China's elite APT1 cyber unit, the operation successfully exfiltrated up to 50 terabytes of classified data
.
This staggering digital haul—equivalent to five Libraries of Congress—included radar designs, engine schematics, and a highly classified 120-page flight testing plan
. Edward Snowden's leaked documents later confirmed that these stolen blueprints directly accelerated the development of China's Shenyang J-31 stealth fighter, a jet that shares a striking resemblance to the F-35
.
The fallout from the hack was immense, forcing the U.S. military to execute an expensive, ground-up rewrite of compromised F-35 software to remove "unwanted surprises"
. It also prompted the Department of Defense to aggressively enforce the Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification (CMMC) to secure vulnerable defense contractors and stop what security experts have called "the greatest transfer of wealth in history"