Post-Google, "red hackers" in limelight

 
SHANGHAI/BEIJING: They are cloaked by pseudonyms and multiple addresses, but China’s legions of hackers were thrust into the spotlight last week  after Google said it suffered a sophisticated cyber-attack emanating from China.

There are tens of thousands of Hong Ke, or red visitors, as they are known in China. Many are motivated by patriotism, although it is more difficult to establish their relationship with the Chinese government or the military, which some experts suspect as being behind the attacks.

The Honker Union, China’s most famous group of Hong Ke, shows the grey area between patriotic hackers and the state. The group has denied involvement in the Google attack.

Founded in 2001, it was involved in cyber-warfare with US hackers over the Hainan spy plane incident in 2001 and last week attacked Iranian websites in retaliation for the Iranian cyber army’s temporary takeover of Chinese search engine Baidu.

The popularity of hacking in China, and hackers’ use of multiple addresses and servers, in Taiwan and elsewhere, makes it hard to prove how or by whom they are coordinated. Would-be hackers in China don’t have to look far to figure out how to do it, thanks to a healthy hacking industry.

For $150, a keen student can buy all the modules online, from programming Trojans to evading anti-virus programmes. Tutors are available via instant-messaging and interactive tutorials. The market for malware in China includes a software known as Grey Pigeon, originally designed to remotely control users’ own computers, that turned out to be an ideal tool for hacking.

Some Chinese hackers train at schools like the Communication Command Academy in Wuhan to get sensitive information, cyber expert James Mulvenon told a congressional commission in 2008. China now may have up to 50,000 military hackers trained or in training, he said. This could not be independently confirmed. REUTERS