China cracks down on insider cyber hacking

An internal crackdown on hacking activities in China has prompted speculation that the country may finally be tackling its cyber criminals.

But political organisations are claiming to have received attacks on their networks from within China, raising questions over whether the state is encouraging certain hacking actions while prosecuting others.

Four Chinese cyber criminals were sentenced last week to between six and eight years each for grand larceny, after stealing more than 100,000 yuan (£7,165) from internet bank accounts, according to the Chinese media.

Representative Chen Wanzhi of the National People’s Congress called for greater state control over the hacker economy.

“Our country has already formed a division of labour in the underground internet industrial chain,” he said. “Some medium- and small-sized firms have even had to pay protection money to insure their e-commerce.”

The production of malware – ­ illegal internet programs ­ – is a big problem in China. Statistics from the Chinese Computer Emergency Response Team show that the country was hit by 21 times more Trojan viruses in the first half of 2007 than in all of 2006.