[News Bot]

China has shut down a training site for computer hackers and arrested three people in connection with the site.

View: Original Article

[DKT27]

China breaks up Black Hawk hacking ring


Chinese authorities have broken a hacking-tool dissemination ring, according to state media.

Police in the central Hubei province arrested three people suspected of running the Black Hawk Safety Net, state news agency Xinhua reported on Monday.

The Black Hawk Safety Net disseminated hacking tools and Trojans to its members, said Xinhua. The group had collected seven million yuan (£650,000) in membership fees from 12,000 subscribers by the time it was shut down. The group had an additional 170,000 members who had joined for free, said Xinhua.

As well as the arrests, the police also seized nine servers, five computers, a Honda Accord and 1.7 million yuan in assets.

The crackdown comes at a time of strained relations between China and web giant Google, due to hacking and censorship. In January, Google said it may pull out of the country altogether, following hacking attacks that attempted to steal Google intellectual property, and in protest against having to censor its search results. The Chinese government denied involvement in the hacks.

Exactly when the police made the arrests of those accused of managing the Black Hawk Safety Net is uncertain. However, The Wall Street Journal reported on Monday that the arrests were made in November 2009, and that the delay in reporting the case has not been explained.

Source - ZDNET

[Bizarre™]

I wonder where they got the money

[shought]

The following is just a personal opinion, please consider that.

I wonder what farmers the Chinese government arrested and where they got the servers, Dell or HP?

This happened in November 2009, but just now, when the US and Google are telling them to get their act straight, the rest of the world gets to hear about it? Way to go, they're either creating their own news or proving America's point, which is China being a complete media blackout for the rest of the world...

[DKT27]

Any type of knowledge, if used for wrong doings, is ultimately gonna harm everyone and not just the victim(s).

This post has been edited by DKT27: 08 February 2010 - 06:11 PM

[Bizarre™]

DKT27, on 08 February 2010 - 06:08 PM, said:

Any type of knowledge, if used for wrong doings, is ultimately gonna harm everyone and not just the victim.

Indeed. The end can't always justify the means

[heath28m]

The Honda Accord seizure is hilarious.. LOL ... I picture a hoopti-lac.. some old computers and a guy who has been out of IT employment for awhile...who began reverse engineering everything..Viruses? we can find those anywhere.. LOL ..'who supplied their members with viruses'.. ...and with your membership you get a free infection. Just thought that was funny..

You know this could also be propaganda to try to get the rest of the world to acknowledge that the government is not trying to facilitate or aide in such activities.. It also could be reason to assume that one of these 'Members' wasn't happy about it.. and went for 'Hack the Planet'...

My second thoughts about this also comes to ( with reason ) assume that if Google Intellectual properties were attacked.. that IF in fact someone wanted to bring the next Google to Chinese Internet.. that all infrastructures and even code related things would be harvested to get a head start on what could be a profitable endeavor for a corporation..

But yeah.. hacking by definition is anything that is modded to alter from its original state.. using this knowledge for the wrong things.. just not good.. I think that there is a lot to learn out there from everyone who has put a piece of code together, and that there are many more things that need to be improved.. as well as things that probably shouldn't be.. When used for malicious means I think the true goal and objective has been thrown askew. With the global economy.. like it is and people desperately trying to obtain their dreams.. and being squeezed shy of their time, and age.. the pressure becomes something that can force anyone to do something to try desperately to have something before they die or it proves to be worthless... Cutting my soap box right there....

On another note.. You can always take the ..' Hacker Purity Test '.. created in 1989.. to see if you really are PURE..