Yeah, sorry about the title…

This story comes via the news.china.com and is an inteview with a Chinese hacker named Hu.  The good news is that it is one of the most candid interviews I have ever read. The bad news is that it is very long and has a lot of technical language that I constantly struggle with.  So, it will be at least a three-part post (if not more) and will be heavily edited in some places. I also may call on one or two of you to lend a hand in coming up with the exact technical jargon. Our hacker Hu gives a very detailed look inside the economy of the underground world of Chinese hackers.

The article begins with a story about a Miss Liu, who returns home, turns on her computer and as she is skimming through webpages, a Word document suddenly opens.  At the top of the document, it begins to automatically write, “I have seen your picture, you are certainly very pretty!”

Due to her job at a large website portal, she immediately realizes this as a Trojan sequence and shuts off the power to the computer. (Miss Liu) “I didn’t expect that my computer could be hit by the Gray Pigeon (Trojan) and turned into a meat chicken (肉鸡). If I hadn’t turned off the computer, the hacker would still be controlling my computer and would also be able to send out data packets giving away all my computers secrets.

The term Rouji (肉鸡), Meat Chicken, I believe is slang for a compromised/infected computer. (a little help!)

It is reported that Gray Pigeon is one of the most virulent viruses in the last several years. The 2007 China Computer Virus Epidemic Network Security Report classified it as the 3rd largest virus.  After infection, the computer can be completely controlled through long-distance attack. The hacker can easily copy, delete or download documents on the computer. Through long-distance attack (the hacker) can also record every keystroke, the users QQ number and online game user information. Furthermore, after infection, the computer that the hacker has invaded is called meat chicken.

In fact, in China, there are several million users just like Miss Liu who are unaware that they are contributing to the strength of this network underground industrial chain.  According to statistics from the Kingsoft Global Anti-Virus Monitoring Center, in 2007, the nation (China) had over 50 million infected computers; an 18.15 percent increase over the same time last year with 90.56 percent of internet users suffering a virus attack. Among those, over 5 million of the infected computers were in Guangdong.

End Part I…tomorrow we will actually get into the interview with hacker Hu.

Horton hears a (Chinese hacker) Hu…Part II
Horton hears a (Chinese hacker) Hu…Part III
Horton hears a (Chinese hacker) Hu…Part IV