The Business Side of China’s Hacking Industry

A large and revealing leak from China was released earlier this month. It shows how much the hacking world in China has turned into a business.

The company, i-SOON, was the victim of a leak. So sad! Not! The hacker posted a collection of 500 internal documents to GitHub.

The documents reveal details of China’s hacking for hire industry. The government, like many large businesses, outsources the hacking to companies like i-SOON. Those companies then fight for contractors and talent.

The documents reveal the level of hacking of other governments throughout Asia and also the UK.

i-SOON has a high level security clearance, apparently, which allows them to compete for certain government hacking contracts. In concept, not a lot different than our defense industrial base, just less friendly to the victims.

Documents include chats between the company’s founders and also disgruntled employees. It is possible one of those employees, who, apparently, are not paid well and work long hours, leaked the documents.

For western security researchers and intelligence officers, this is a great cache of intelligence from a country that is notoriously secretive.

Hopefully we will see more leaks like this. Credit: Brian Krebs

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