China shuts down major hacker ring

China has announced that it has shut down a major hacker ring called the Black Hawk Safety Net. The business was allegedly disseminating hacking tools online, generating some $1 million in income. Three people suspected of running the site were arrested in November last year. It is not unusual for the authorities to report such legal actions months after it has happened.

This public announcement comes in the wake of accusations from Google that it has been the target of a "highly sophisticated and targeted" attack originating from China. Since the accusation, the Chinese government has been waging a public-relations campaign on hacking in order to discredit the allegations from Google.

Of course, the topic of who has the most hackers is a tricky one to address. China's state media has fired back that the United States is being hypocritical, since the country itself is the center of many hacking activities. Ironically, a report we ran two weeks back on cyberattacks against critical infrastructure saw the United States as the biggest threat (ahead of China) in a poll of the IT professionals manning critical hardware.

So what effect will the closure of Black Hawk Safety Net have? Alan Paller, who is the director of research at the SANS Institute, thinks the impact will be limited. "Sadly, the tack they [China] took is just a whack-a-mole exercise." Paller added that other hackers will simply take their place.

For more on this story:
- check out this article at ZDNet UK
- check out this article at The Wall Street Journal

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