China breaks up Black Hawk hacking ring

Chinese authorities have broken a hacking-tool dissemination ring, according to state media.

Police in the central Hubei province arrested three people suspected of running the Black Hawk Safety Net, state news agency Xinhua reported Monday.

The Black Hawk Safety Net disseminated hacking tools and Trojans to its members, said Xinhua. The group had collected 7 million yuan ($1 million) in membership fees from 12,000 subscribers by the time it was shut down. The group had an additional 170,000 members who had joined for free, said Xinhua.

Read more of "China breaks up Black Hawk hacking ring" at ZDNet UK.

[Lerianis4]

Yeah..... broke up this organization after how many years of shielding them, only to take the tools they had and doing these attack themselves.

[n3td3v]

How many hacking groups has the west broke up? None. Defcon and Blackhat conferences still go ahead, and U.S Government take the tools they give out and do attack themselves.

[n3td3v]

Plus, the U.S Government has made the organizer of Defcon and Blackhat conference "The Dark Tangent" a member of the Department of Homeland Security advisory board.

[weegg]

Let's see if the Chinese authorities bother to track down the members on the list.


Yeah, right that won't happen.

[Lerianis4]

by n3td3v February 8, 2010 10:10 AM PST
Plus, the U.S Government has made the organizer of Defcon and Blackhat conference "The Dark Tangent" a member of the Department of Homeland Security advisory board.
_________________________________________

Those guys are doing things legally and INFORM the companies of problems with their stuff first, before making it public in almost all cases.
That's the difference between them and these Chinese guys.

[Seaspray0]

@n3td3v. What does a hacking ring being broken up in china have to do with defcon, blackhat, or the US in particular? Absolutely nothing; they weren't even mentioned in the story. So, why does every article posted that mentions hacking and china provoke a rash of attacks from you against the west/US? Claiming someone else is worse is not a justification or defense for anything. That would be like me saying, "I should be exhonerated of my parking ticket because someone else robbed a store." It doesn't work that way. Neither should you expect any sympathy, especially when China's history has been filled with 99% software piracy and theft of everyone elses intelectual property.

[knowles2]

Lerianis4

Most those guys started out illegally hacking the networks. More than a few probably still do to this.

[rocwhite]

Not breaking them up is shielding them, while breaking them up is to take the tools they had. With your preconception, how could China do anything that satisfy you?

[Seaspray0]

Publish the subcriber lists.

[AaronMK]

What do they want? A cookie?

[Mergatroid Mania]

No, a trojan.

[T_Hoff]

Given their talents, I'm sure they'll be offered government jobs.

[dpbaker57]

So what did this hacking ring do to **** off the government? These are the lambs that Beijing has decided to offer the rest of the world to show they are really fighting the criminal hackers. If any country in the world has the ability to stop hackers it is China. The "Great Firewall" does not allow anyone to go places that the government has banded and no traffic leave the country unnoticed. I'm very sure they can identify hacking through traffic analysis and packet sampling should they care to. They just choose to ignore most of it especially the state sanctioned attacks.

[knowles2]

You mean the leaky firewall which even novices with out any formal training can bypassed with just a bit of research an knowledge, which is widely available even in China.

This hacking probably did nothing but impress the government with the abilities to penetrate western computer networks. A abilities which is highly useful to the chinese state.

[Dan7637]

bull$hit they arrested, publicity to brighten their image

i bet they posted a ref to the dalai lama and they got their panties in a bunch

[KandyMan114]

Oh Really?? Wow, I must have been living under a rock or something... Great publicity stunt, China...

[rocwhite]

This happened before, only you chose to interpret it as related to what happened recently.

[knowles2]

You mean they took them to a nice police cell to begin contract negotiations for there services, in return for them not being beaten to pulp an thene executed, they hack enemies computer systems an receive a descent pay. It not above the FBI an NSA to offer the same deals, I am certain it not above the Chinese to do the same.