Federal Authorities Unmask Chinese National in Multi-Year NASA Spear-Phishing Scheme

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s Office of Inspector General has detailed a sophisticated espionage campaign where a Chinese national successfully impersonated American researchers to siphon sensitive defense technology.

For nearly five years, NASA employees and academic collaborators operated under the illusion that they were participating in routine professional software sharing with domestic colleagues. In reality, they were funneling proprietary source code and modeling software to Song Wu, an engineer at the state-owned Aviation Industry Corporation of China.

The Department of Justice revealed that the scheme, which ran from early 2017 through late 2021, systematically targeted a broad spectrum of the American defense infrastructure, including the Air Force, Navy, Army, and the Federal Aviation Administration, alongside various private firms and universities. Working through a network of imposter accounts, Song and his co-conspirators conducted meticulous research on their targets to pose convincingly as friends and peers.

This deception allowed them to bypass traditional security hurdles and gain access to specialized software critical for aerodynamic design and the development of advanced tactical missiles. While the FBI has now placed the forty-year-old on its Most Wanted List, Song remains at large following an indictment on multiple counts of wire fraud and aggravated identity theft. Each count of wire fraud carries a potential twenty-year prison sentence.

Investigators noted that while the phishing attempts were highly sophisticated, the operation left behind subtle clues, such as Song making redundant requests for the same software without professional justification. Federal officials are now using the case to highlight the evolving nature of export control fraud, noting that scammers often rely on unusual payment methods and unconventional transfer systems to mask their true identities and circumvent international shipping restrictions.