China’s largest hacker training website busted

Police in Hubei Province of central China have cracked down on the largest website for hacker training in the country, the province's general security department stated. TMCnet.com reported this on February 7, 2010.

More information underscores that during late-November 2009, the site called 'Black Hawk Safety Net' was busted and police arrested the masterminds behind its operation. The detained men, three in all, are thought to have been spreading Trojan programs along with techniques for website hacking via the now-seized site.

Information further reveals that Black Hawk had over 12,000 subscribers from whom, over US$1m was collected as subscription charges. Police confiscated five computers, nine servers along with a car, and disabled all related websites.

Meanwhile, a subscriber, aged 23, stated that he was able to download Trojan software from Black Hawk that helped him to gain access to other people's PCs. According to him, all that was only for fun. Nevertheless, he knew that a lot of other subscribers might try to make huge money via hacking into the accounts of different people, he said. Digital.asiaone.com reported this on February 8, 2010.

One more subscriber said that Black Hawk basically told students how to use the trojans and steal accounts. At times trainers demonstrated the ways in which programs could be written, he added. Digital.asiaone.com reported this.

Indeed, this notorious breach greatly supports a trend across China i.e. performing computer hacking as a national game. Undoubtedly, it's found attractive too although it's illegal in the country. In 2009, Beijing modified and strengthened an act, which regards computer hacking a crime. The act assigns incarceration to convicts for up to 7-years. But, it isn't firmly implemented; consequently, hackers ignore it easily.

Furthermore, Black Hawk's shutdown comes when there's increasing concern that cyber-crime incidences are globally expanding from China. In January 2010, Google reported of Chinese hackers attacking its users' e-mail accounts and also damaging 20-or-more other organizations.

However, Chinese officials negating the country's involvement in cyber assaults say that it's the greatest sufferer of Web-attacks. The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology reported that during 2009, hackers' attacks affected over 42,000 websites.

Related article: China’s Best Initiatives To Deal With Spam

» SPAMfighter News - 2/13/2010