The Dark Visitor

KnowSec is sharing the database and also reports finding more than 100 trojan downloaders a day.

The database covers more Chinese Web sites and provides more up-to-date information about their security than any other, Zhao said in the interview. China produces the majority of the world’s malware, he said.

A history for each site in the database lists dates of malware infection, the strings of malicious code placed on the sites and which antivirus products defend viewers against their attacks. The database also stores tens of thousands of viruses found being distributed by the sites.

During the Olympics Games, a secret organization was formed by a Chinese hacker named Wang Zi to protect Olympic websites against foreign hackers and while they won’t say, reprisals were probably taken against offenders.

This article, from the People’s Daily, details Wang Zi’s efforts to bring back the patriotic spirit of the Red Hacker Alliance.

“The Tao that can be described in words is not the true Tao. The Name that can be named is not the true Name,” – the first two sentences of Tao Te Ching are the slogan of hong ke that appear on the new union’s new homepage.

After the Olympics, Wang Zi’s group retired from the web for a short time, and then on the first day of this year, the group made a bold new announcement.

The blurb on their newly-launched website reads, “Hong ke culture is back. We will hold and transmit hong ke spirit focusing on justice, pioneering and love for the motherland.”

Lin Lin, the leader of Evil Octal (another Chinese hacker organization), refutes Wang Zi’s claim to the title of new leader:

“Lion is the spiritual leader of the hong ke union,” Lin Lin, a leader of hacker group Eviloctal Security Team, told the Global Times. “And without him, no hong ke organization can be regarded as a reorganization of the original.

The article goes to great lengths to distance the organization from being government sanctioned:

Wang Zi says his union is a purely non-governmental organization. They could not register the union’s name with the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology until they deleted “Zhongguo” (China) from it.

H/T: Mark

Received an interesting e-mail from one of our readers named Mark who suggested I take a look at an article dealing with Chinese fears of US hackers and the possible threat to its cyber sovereignty:

In that context, the article I came across in the English-language China Daily was an eye-opener. The title was “China at the mercy of global hackers.”

Early in the article, a Chinese academic expert on cyber warfare said: “In a worst-case scenario, a security breach could result in the breakdown of the energy supply and collapse of the financial system, not to mention a collapse of the national defense capability.… The capability to defend China’s information and cybersecurity is extremely weak, and many of its online applications remain vulnerable to assault.”

First, thank you to everyone who sent an e-mail asking if everything was okay.  Yep, we are fine with the exception of a few missing images that will be replaced as time permits.  Second, Chinese hackers did not take us down, it was a combination of the upgrade to WP 2.8 and Godaddy.  Long story but the hero for returning the site to normal is of course, Jumper.

Also, sorry for the long delay in posting.  Just returned from a two-week trip to China, visited the cities of Beijing, Xi’an, Nanjing and Shanghai.  Returned to a ton of work,  a zillion e-mails, broke the blog and had the flu.  Pretty full week.

We really do appreciate your patience and concern, things should be running close to normal again.