According to the indictment, the hackers were working both for the Chinese government’s Ministry of State Security and for their own personal gain. At the moment, there’s no indication that they obtained any COVID-19 research.

“China has now taken its place, alongside Russia, Iran and North Korea, in that shameful club of nations that provide a safe haven for cyber criminals in exchange for those criminals being ‘on call’ to work for the benefit of the state, here to feed the Chinese Communist party’s insatiable hunger for American and other non-Chinese companies’ hard-earned intellectual property, including COVID-19 research,” John C. Demers, assistant attorney general for national security, said in a statement.

In addition to targeting COVID-19 research, the cyberattacks allegedly targeted robotics, aircraft and marine engineering, clean energy engineering, biotechnology, non-governmental organizations and human rights activists. According to the Justice Department, the hackers stole trade secrets, technologies, data and personal information from the computer systems of businesses, individuals and agencies throughout the world.

In the face of pressure from the Chinese government, Tencent and Riot Games have added age-based time limits to League of Legends in China, Polygon reports. Minors now get booted from the game after two hours of play, and the companies use China’s national ID numbers — which are used to make accounts — to verify ages. Supposedly, the new rules are an attempt to curb gaming addiction.

The alert reportedly cautions organizations involved in national security and critical functions that they must be “especially vigilant as they may be at greater risk of espionage.” If the alert has any merit, it could be serious, as in the US, drones are used for everything from law enforcement to first response missions and medical deliveries.

The alert doesn’t list a specific drone manufacturer, but as CNN points out, nearly 80 percent of drones in the US and Canada come from DJI, which is headquartered in Shenzhen, China. According to Reuters, DJI said “the security of our technology has been independently verified by the US government and leading US businesses.” The company also said it gives its customers full and complete control over how data is collected, stored and transmitted. For government and other critical operations, DJI also offers drones that do not transfer data back to the company or via the internet.

This alert, issued by DHS’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, comes less than a week after President Trump signed an executive order that bans the sale and use of telecom equipment that poses “unacceptable” risk to national security. While the US has expressed fears that companies like Huawei and ZTE could use infrastructure to facilitate surveillance, there hasn’t been any public evidence that Huawei participated in Chinese government espionage. Likewise, we haven’t seen any indication that Chinese drone manufacturers have shared drone data or used it in any objectionable ways.