Cyber criminals from China pose a major threat

Tuesday, 02 February 2010, 23:19 IST
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Changsha, China: Internet security experts say China has legions of hackers, who are behind an escalating number of global attacks to steal credit card numbers, commit corporate espionage and even wage cyber-warfare on other nations. Recently, search engine Google blamed Chinese hackers for a series of cyber-attacks that led to the theft of the company's valuable source code, reports The New York Times. Google also said hackers infiltrated the private Gmail accounts of human rights activists, suggesting the effort might have been more than just mischief. In addition to independent cyber-criminals, computer security specialists say that there are also 'patriotic hackers' who focus their attacks on political targets. Then there are the intelligence-oriented hackers inside the People's Liberation Army, as well as groups that are believed to work with the state government. Indeed, in China - as in parts of Eastern Europe and Russia, computer hacking has become something of a national sport, and an attractive one. There are hacker conferences, hacker training academies and magazines with titles like 'Hacker X Files' and 'Hacker Defense,' which offer tips on how to break into computers or build a Trojan horse. Computer hacking is illegal in China. Last year, Beijing revised and tightened a law that makes hacking into computers a crime, with punishments of up to seven years in prison. However, hackers seem to disregard the law, largely because it is not strictly enforced. Many Chinese hackers interviewed by New York Times over the past few weeks describe a loosely defined community of computer geeks working independently, but also selling services out to corporations, and even the military.