Plug pulled on massive hacker-training Website
By Wang Xiang |
February 9, 2010, Tuesday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
Police in central China have arrested three masterminds behind a massive hacker training Website with more than 170,000 members.
Officers in Huanggang, Hubei Province, said that 3800cc.com, or Black Hawk Safety Net, was the largest hacker Website in China.
While the 170,000-plus people are free users, more than 12,000 paid 600 yuan (US$87.90) for so-called VIP access.
VIP account holders could use downloads of Trojan software and other textbooks on hacker skills.
Trojans, which allow outside access to a computer when implanted, are used by hackers to illegally control machines.
Black Hawk Safety Net collected more than 7 million yuan in membership fees.
Police have stopped the operation of the Website, frozen more than 1.7 million yuan in its account, and seized nine Internet servers and three computers.
Officers said they first traced 3800cc.com after a three-day Internet interruption in the province's Macheng in 2007, according to yesterday's Legal Daily.
Six people tried to attack the system of a local Internet cafe in a bid to extort money from the owner.
However, they crashed the whole Internet connection in the city after their attacks got out of control.
Huang Shaokui, the vice police chief in Macheng, said though the six had never met before they were seized, they formed a sophisticated chain of business that could earn millions of yuan through extortion and virus selling, according to China Central Television.
Three of the six people responsible for the Internet interruption confessed to police that they learned hacking skills from 3800cc.com.
They said they paid 1,500 yuan for the software they used to attack the Net cafe.
Investigations found that a Trojan horse that could be downloaded from the Website affected more than 110,000 computers in a month.
All of these computers, known as Zombie machines, were controlled by hackers without the owners' knowledge.
While the Black Hawk Safety Net is inaccessible now, other hacker training Websites are reportedly still running. They offer downloads of hacking tools for a price.
Qi Xiangdong, president of a Chinese anti-virus company, told CCTV in November that there were about 100,000 people involved in underground hacker activity, a business he estimated to be worth about 10 billion yuan annually.
Officers in Huanggang, Hubei Province, said that 3800cc.com, or Black Hawk Safety Net, was the largest hacker Website in China.
While the 170,000-plus people are free users, more than 12,000 paid 600 yuan (US$87.90) for so-called VIP access.
VIP account holders could use downloads of Trojan software and other textbooks on hacker skills.
Trojans, which allow outside access to a computer when implanted, are used by hackers to illegally control machines.
Black Hawk Safety Net collected more than 7 million yuan in membership fees.
Police have stopped the operation of the Website, frozen more than 1.7 million yuan in its account, and seized nine Internet servers and three computers.
Officers said they first traced 3800cc.com after a three-day Internet interruption in the province's Macheng in 2007, according to yesterday's Legal Daily.
Six people tried to attack the system of a local Internet cafe in a bid to extort money from the owner.
However, they crashed the whole Internet connection in the city after their attacks got out of control.
Huang Shaokui, the vice police chief in Macheng, said though the six had never met before they were seized, they formed a sophisticated chain of business that could earn millions of yuan through extortion and virus selling, according to China Central Television.
Three of the six people responsible for the Internet interruption confessed to police that they learned hacking skills from 3800cc.com.
They said they paid 1,500 yuan for the software they used to attack the Net cafe.
Investigations found that a Trojan horse that could be downloaded from the Website affected more than 110,000 computers in a month.
All of these computers, known as Zombie machines, were controlled by hackers without the owners' knowledge.
While the Black Hawk Safety Net is inaccessible now, other hacker training Websites are reportedly still running. They offer downloads of hacking tools for a price.
Qi Xiangdong, president of a Chinese anti-virus company, told CCTV in November that there were about 100,000 people involved in underground hacker activity, a business he estimated to be worth about 10 billion yuan annually.
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