Chinese hacker charged for theft of 78.8mn records

In one of the "worst data breaches in history", the names, addresses, dates of birth, employment and income data, Social Security numbers and highly sensitive medical information were stolen.

"Wang Fujie, also known as Dennis Wang, and another individual in the indictment, are alleged to have infiltrated the US-based computer systems of US health insurer Anthem and three other companies, the Justice Department said in a statement on Thursday," the South China Morning Post reported.

The hackers are said to have stolen the 78 million records over a month between October and November in 2014 by transferring large archive files from Anthem's data warehouse back to China.

"The indictment was the latest in a series of efforts by the US Federal Bureau of Investigations to tackle alleged hacking operations and cybertheft emanating from China. The bureau has become increasingly vocal about the country.

"The second suspect, who was identified in court documents as John Doe and through aliases including Zhou Zhihong, conducted the alleged hacking activities in China," the report added.