Andre Yoskowitz
8 Feb 2010 16:30
Chinese officials have announced this week the bust of a large hacking ring that was allegedly the nation's largest distributor of hacking tools.
The Black Hawk Safety Net, which used the site 3800cc.com as a front, allegedly made $1 million in income in 2009 from 12,000 subscribers.
Three admins were arrested as part of the raid. Strangely, the arrests are said to have taken place three months ago, but only reported this week.
Black Hawk was known more as a hacking "training" group, mainly through the sale of malicious software and instructions on how to use them. In 2007, the group made the news for helping create a virus that took down corporate and government systems in Hubei.
Along with the arrest of 29-year-old Li Qiang and 28-year-old Zhang Lei (the third man was not identified), 1.7 million yuan ($250,000 USD) in assets were seized, mainly in cash and computer equipment.