12 detained or punished over fabricating massive leak of online personal data

[security curmudgeon <jericho () attrition org>]

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: InfoSec News <alerts () infosecnews org>

http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/90882/7701857.html

Xinhua
January 11, 2012

BEIJING, Jan. 10 (Xinhua) -- Four people have been detained by police and 
eight others punished after they were found guilty of fabricating a 
massive leak of online personal data by hackers over the past month in 
China, the country's Internet watchdog announced Tuesday.

China's leading anti-virus software provider, Beijing-based Qihoo 360, 
claimed in late December that the personal information of more than 6 
million users of the China Software Developer Network (CSDN), the 
country's largest programmers' website, had been leaked by hackers. That 
raised concerns about web security and triggered widespread panic.

The company said the leak included user IDs, passwords and e-mail 
addresses in clear text. The hacking case later escalated after the 
personal details of subscribers to more websites, including popular online 
shopping, gaming, social networking and even financial institution sites, 
were said to have been leaked.

However, a police investigation into the cases has found that most of 
those websites had not been attacked by hackers at all over the past 
month, or that they had been attacked without their subscribers' 
information being leaked, a spokesman with the National Internet 
Information Office said Tuesday. The leaks were merely a fabrication.

[..]
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