China Admits Anonymous Hacks Occured

New submitter SolKeshNaranek writes "After Anonymous hacked hundreds of Chinese government, company, and other general websites, China has acknowledged the attacks. Meanwhile, Anonymous China has not stopped its onslaught. 'A few targets have had their administrator accounts, phone numbers, and e-mail addresses posted publicly. Last but not least, on many of the hacked sites, the group even posted tips for how to circumvent the Great Firewall of China. While Anonymous was not specifically mentioned, it's obvious what China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs was referring to during a briefing on Thursday, given the events during the last week.'"

Comments

html defacing .. big deal?

[Sebastopol]

I am not a hacker.

Is defacing a website a big deal? Or just the equivalent of spray-paint tagging?

Re:html defacing .. big deal?

[Anonymous Coward]

It's like breaking into the lobby of a bank and spray painting the windows from the inside, so not a terrible thing on the surface, but potentially bad depending on how secure the rest of the bank is from the lobby.

Re:html defacing .. big deal?

[Anonymous Coward]

Not even remotely close. It's like breaking into the lobby of the bank, tying up all the tellers, and replacing them with people who tell the visitors your manifesto when they come in to do their banking. And/or possibly copy down their account information when they try to make a transaction. And maybe find the teller's passwords written on notes underneath their keyboards. A pretty bad thing on the surface, and possibly terrible, depending on how secure the bank's computer system is.

Re:html defacing .. big deal?

[Anonymous Coward]

This is where you and I disagree. I'm not even looking at this from a "legal" vs "illegal" perspective. Generally speaking, I do not believe website tagging is okay under any circumstances, even when doing this to people, institutions, or countries I may not be fond of. If the people of China do not like the censorship, they need to change the ruling class's minds one way or another.

The below is just my opinion and only my opinion. I am not suggesting anybody do something illegal. Don't break the law. Now then, having covered my ass from our overzealous legal system run by tyrants, I will tell you how I feel about it when people do it anyway. The more of an asshole it happens to and the more obscene the tagging is the more I like it. I like it even more when it's severe downtime that really costs $$$ like what happened to Sony's network. Couldn't have happened to a more deserving organization of dicks who thought they'd never, ever suffer any consequences from being a bunch of dicks.

The notion that being a dick and constantly causing problems for other people makes you a target for their vengence is a GOOD THING. Stop trying to discard it. It's one of the few forces keeping order in the world. There are certain powerful people and organizations that are totally untouchable otherwise.

You can rant about "vigilantism" etc all you like, but unless there are effective legal remedies that are available to the average person then you are merely being an idealist. In the real world you are not going to take a multinational corporation to court and win. They are nearly invincible and effectively untouchable unless you are very wealthy and want to dedicate years of your life to the task knowing you still might lose.

I am sorry but if you cannot accept that the world has ugly necessities then you don't have the guts to do so and I sincerely hope you are never faced with a truly difficult decision with no ideal solution because you are the wrong man for the job.

Re:html defacing .. big deal?

[buchner.johannes]

Except these are not banks that have been hacked into, nor sites with thousands of users with accounts.

The perfect cover

[Nidi62]

Of course they acknowledge the hacks. There is nothing better for the government of China than to have a large group of hackers known to exist in China. It gives them the perfect cover and defense for their own hacking program. Now if something gets hacked and the hack is traced back to China, the government doesn't have to deny that a hack took place; they can just point to these hackers. The government now has a scapegoat for the next time they get caught hacking.

Re:The perfect cover

[game kid]

As an added bonus it gives them an excuse to (try to) make the Great Firewall even tighter (and if you're wise enough to oppose their tighter controls they can just say "what are you...one of them anti-patriotic hackers!?" as they confiscate your machine and send you to labor).

Re:The perfect cover

[RobertinXinyang]

You don't entirely get it, acknowledging the attacks feeds into the official line that China is always under attack.

China is an extremely nationalistic country that continually repeats to its people "China is a very poor country that is under constant attack and must continually allow the Government to provide for its defense at any cost." Thus, any opposition to the Government is seen as actions against The Nation in the face of the enemy.

I don't understand your point

[circletimessquare]

Assad blames terrorists.

Putin blames foreign meddling.

An abusive husband/ boyfriend blames his wife's/ girlfriend's choice of dress.

Etc., etc.

Abusers everywhere always have a convenient excuse to be an abuser.

So I don't understand what the point of your post is. They will ALWAYS have an excuse. Is your point that if Anonymous didn't do what they did the Chinese Govt would go "we found no excuse today to deny Chinese people their freedoms so we're letting them express themselves freely now."

Seriously, what is your point? There is ALWAYS a scapegoat.

Pointing out that an abuser has an excuse or can find an excuse is completely useless. Explaining their excuse is useless. It's still just an excuse, and they can always find one. A scapegoat requires no effort and can be imagined in any way possible. Logic and reason is no limitation.

So please explain to me what the point of your post is?

Re:How convenient

[circletimessquare]

Yes, and 9/11 was an inside job, we never landed on the moon, Obama is a secret Communist Muslim, Roosevelt knew about Pearl Harbor beforehand, etc., etc.

Paranoid schizophrenia is a sad disease.

Of course they acknowledged the attacks

[Karmashock]

It legitimizes further crack downs and more control.

Look at what terrorists did to the US FBI, CIA, etc? It justified just about anything. And the chinese need that justification because their security ambitions are always about 1000 times more involved.