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China closes 'biggest hacker site', arrests three

Uzbekistan News.Net
Monday 8th February, 2010 (IANS)

Police have shut down China's biggest website for hackers and arrested three people suspected of selling malicious software and other hacking services, state media said Monday.

The police in the central province of Hubei arrested the three owners of Black Hawk Safety Net, a specialist hacking website that registered more than 170,000 free members, the China Daily newspaper said.

The website also collected about 7 million yuan ($1 million dollars) in fees from 12,000 VIP members, the newspaper said.

Since it was set up in 2005, the website had 'disseminated hacker techniques through lessons, Trojan software and online forum communications', it said.

About 50 officers had investigated the website since police linked several members to a virus attack in Hubei's Macheng city in 2007.

Some hackers who used the site had seized control of online accounts for their own entertainment while others hacked into bank accounts with the aim of stealing money, the newspaper said.

'Basically, students were told how to steal accounts and use Trojan programs,' one unnamed 20-year-old was quoted as saying of the website's training for hackers. 'Sometimes, trainers show us how to write programs.'

Hackers caused estimated economic losses of 7.6 billion yuan for China's 380 million Internet users last year, according to the government.

News of the arrests came amid a diplomatic spat between China and the US after Internet giant Google Inc said it was reviewing its operations in China following 'a highly sophisticated and targeted attack on our corporate infrastructure originating from China'.

 

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Comments on this story

fish
02-08-10, 11:56 AM

China closes 'biggest hacker site', arrests three

There should exist a team of global police and a global court on internet crimes because the web is without border. But the best prevention comes from within each and every country before the crimes get to the point of no return. What China did is a great example. If all the countries work on cooperation, collaboration in formulating guidelines that affect all universally, set up detection strategies, ground rules, cooperation protocols and share technologies and info to prevent evil from growing and spreading, rather than attacking each other, then the Superhighway will be a whole lot safer with fewer robbers, thieves, conmen, privacy invaders and predators.


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