|
ˇ@
Chinese police shut Web site providing
training for hackers
AP, BEIJING
Tuesday, Feb 09, 2010, Page 1
Police in Hubei Province have shut down a hacker training operation that openly
recruited thousands of members online and provided them with cyberattack lessons
and malicious software, state media said yesterday.
The crackdown comes amid growing concern that China is a center for Internet
crime and industrial espionage. Search giant Google said last month its e-mail
accounts were hacked from China in an assault that also hit at least 20 other
companies.
Police in Hubei arrested three people suspected of running the hacker site known
as the Black Hawk Safety Net that disseminated Web site hacking techniques and
Trojan software, the China Daily said.
Trojans, which can allow outside access to a computer when implanted, are used
by hackers to control computers remotely. The report did not say exactly when
the arrests took place.
Black Hawk Safety Net recruited more than 12,000 paying subscribers and
collected more than 7 million yuan (US$1 million) in membership fees, while
another 170,000 people had signed up for free membership, the paper said.
The report said police seized nine servers, five computers and a car, and shut
down all Web sites involved in the case. Authorities also froze 1.7 million yuan
in assets.
The shutdown of the site followed an investigation involving 50 police officers
in three other provinces, another newspaper said.
The case can be traced to a hacking attack in 2007 on an Internet cafe in
Macheng City in Hubei that caused Web services for dozens to be disrupted for
more than 60 hours, the paper said. A few of the suspects caught in April said
they were members of the Black Hawk Safety Net.
Black Hawkˇ¦s Web site 3800hk.com could not be accessed, but a notice purportedly
from Black Hawk circulating on online forums said that a backup site had been
set up.
The notice also sought to reassure members of its continued operations and said
its reputation was being smeared by some Internet users.
ˇ§At this time, there are Internet users with evil intentions who have
deliberately destroyed Black Hawkˇ¦s reputation, deceived our members and stole
material,ˇ¨ the notice addressed to members said. ˇ§We must join forces and attack
these Web sites.ˇ¨
ˇ@
|
