DDoS has become a big business in China

Based on a research published by Tencent Research Institute, in China, DDoS attacks now "employs" about 380,000 people in China, with more than 6000 hacking groups, and revenue to the north of RMB$10 billion ($1 = 6.39RMB as of Nov. 25, 2015).

Typical scenarios of a DDoS attack in China include:
- Business competition: one would hire these hackers to attach the website or IT system of a competitor.
- Blackmail: one would attack a business until some ransom money is paid.

People make money by:
- Sell DDoS tools
- Execute attacks
- Be the middle man.

(Source is in Chinese: http://mp.weixin.qq.com/s?__biz=MjM5OTE0ODA2MQ==&mid=400673180&idx=1&sn=ed89dbe28196c9fea6d9c05c466740af&scene=5&srcid=1125DUtCuEyO5DNOtemTqyAM#rd)

Software piracy, followed by hacking

China Mafia-Style Hack Attack Drives California Firm to Brink

"For three years, a group of hackers from China waged a relentless campaign of cyber harassment against Solid Oak Software Inc., Milburn’s family-owned, eight-person firm in Santa Barbara, California. The attack began less than two weeks after Milburn publicly accused China of appropriating his company’s parental filtering software, CYBERsitter, for a national Internet censoring project. And it ended shortly after he settled a $2.2 billion lawsuit against the Chinese government and a string of computer companies last April. "

Spear fishing, sabortage of email server, etc. were the tactics used by the attackers.

The profile of a Chinese hacker

This article (http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2013-02-14/a-chinese-hackers-identity-unmasked#p1) describes the unearth of some details of a Chinese hacker who has spread malware to take over machines, which in turn would send information to servers this hack owns.

Case in point: a hacker also a real life. In the malware, the hacker uses his "pen names". But the email associated with the domain registration information for the servers he owns gave clue to researcher where to look further. Then researchers were able to find the email being used to register a company, and post in public forums about the car he owns.

It looks like in real life he is a teacher at the PLA Information Engineering University in Zhengzhou, Henan Province.

Both New York Times and Wall Street Journal claim to have been hacked by China

New York Times, for the article about Wen Jiabao's family accumulating massive wealth.

Wall Street Journal, for monitoring the newspaper's coverage of China.

Both claim that the hacking starting with their office or staff in China. This is similar to Google's claim that it was hacked, starting from its staff in China.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/01/technology/wall-street-journal-reports-attack-by-china-hackers.html?_r=0

New book by Schmidt and Cohen views China as most dangerous

Eric Schmidt is former CEO of Google.

Jared Cohen used to work for the US State Department and is now the head of Google Ideas, the search giant’s think tank.

In their new book "The New Digital Age", they regards China as “the world’s most active and enthusiastic filterer of information” as well as “the most sophisticated and prolific” hacker of foreign companies. 

http://blogs.wsj.com/corporate-intelligence/2013/02/01/exclusive-eric-schmidt-unloads-on-china-in-new-book/

Surveillance cameras in China

Finally an official article that talks about the startling fact that surveillance cameras are now installed everywhere in Chinese cities. The article reports 20 million as of Jan 2013.

Also, your cell phone is used by authority to keep track of where you are.

http://www.npr.org/2013/01/29/170469038/in-china-beware-a-camera-may-be-watching-you

Looks like the work of Chinese hackers

On Nov. 21, 2001, the equity research firm Muddy Waters rated Chinese company Focus Media (Nasdaq FMCN) a "strong sell," citing a “significant overstatement of the number of screens in its LCD advertising network and its Olympus-style acquisition overpayments.”

As a result, the stock of FMCN dropped about 40%.

5-day chart of FMCN, from Yahoo! Finance

Then the next day, the website of this research company was hacked. Here is the image from the website: