Chinese Cyber Criminals Take Chances on the Surface Web

Chinese Cyber Criminals Take Chances on the Surface Web: The Chinese hacking community which operates by-and-large out in open, which is using the code words to avoid the government scrutiny and the benefiting from the state support when attacks are aimed outside the country, according to a new report.

While the most of analysis of Chinese Cyber-attacks which focuses on state-sponsored campaigns, there is in fact thriving and fast-maturing domestic cyber crime underground, according to the InSights’ Dark Side of Asia report.

On the other hand these players are of course are restricted in the Tor browser is blocked by the Great Firewall, cryptocurrency is banned, VPN use is severaly restricted and the authorities can access WeChat communications.

However, if there is money involved there is always some possible way for that. InSight claimed that “clear net” websites which are seen as the large numbers of customers, with hackers using the special sort of code words to avoid scrutiny.

The popular networks like QQ WeChat, Baidu Tieba and Baidu Zhidao which are used to community and advertise everything from DDoS tools and of course the stolen data to forged documents, malware and hacking-as-a-service, the firm said.

“The government does attempt to fight against Chinese cyber-criminals, for example shutting down their website and making arrests when they can, but due to the sheer number of websites and users in China, even the monitoring and censoring activity being done by the government can’t stop all cyber-criminal activity on the Chinese web,” it claimed.

“While there are tens of thousands of dark websites in Russian and English, the number of Chinese websites rather small. Moreover, some of the web pages originate from Hong Kong and Taiwan.”

To fill out the gap, Chinese cyber criminals have also populated the Russian dark web forums to obtain “tools and information” and flood Western sites to sell drugs and other illegal items, the report claimed.

It goes without saying that if any of Chinese cyber criminals or group were about to attack the foreign target for any financial gain or in nationalist fueled hactivism the government is likely to turn a blind eye, according to the report.