Hacker, suspected of 6 million user info leak, detained

[security curmudgeon <jericho () attrition org>]

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

http://www.shanghaidaily.com/nsp/National/2012/03/21/Hacker%2Bsuspected%2Bof%2B6%2Bmillion%2Buser%2Binfo%2Bleak%2Bdetained/

By Zhao Wen
ShanghaiDaily.com
2012-3-21

The man suspected of hacking into China's largest website for programmers 
and leaking personal information of over 6 million users last December has 
been detained on charges of illegal acquisition of computer data, the 
Beijing News reported today.

The suspect surnamed Zeng was held in Wenzhou, eastern Zhejiang Province 
on February 4 after Beijing police opened an investigation into the case 
on December 22, the paper said.

The leak, considered the biggest in China's Internet history, occurred on 
December 21 when the personal information of more than 6 million users of 
the China Software Developer Network (CSDN) was exposed on the Internet 
for free downloading.

Police said the leaked information contained user IDs, passwords and 
e-mail addresses in clear text. The leak had rippling effects on other 
websites, including online shopping, gaming, social networking and even 
financial service websites.

Police noticed that most of the leaked data in the case were dated July 
2009 to July 2010, indicating the CSDN server was hacked before July 2010.

Zeng caught police's attention because he claimed in an online post in 
September 2010 that he gained command of the CSDN database and wanted to 
cooperate with the website, it was reported.

He admitted to hacking into the CSDN server in April 2010 through a system 
loophole and sneaking into an online recharge platform and a stock 
brokerage system.

During the investigation, police also uncovered four other hackers and 
investigation into their illegal activities is still ongoing, the paper 
said.

After the incident, Beijing police gave CSDN an administrative punishment 
for lacking efforts to safeguard its database. CSDN apologized to its 
subscribers and claimed that its database has been safe since September 
2010.
_______________________________________________
Dataloss Mailing List (dataloss () datalossdb org)
Archived at http://seclists.org/dataloss/
Unsubscribe at http://datalossdb.org/mailing_list

Supporters:

Risk Based Security (http://www.riskbasedsecurity.com/)
Risk Based Security equips organizations with security intelligence, risk management services and on-demand security 
solutions to establish customized risk-based programs to address information security and compliance challenges. 

Tenable Network Security (http://www.tenable.com/)
Tenable Network Security provides a suite of solutions which unify real-time vulnerability, event and compliance 
monitoring into a single, role-based, interface for administrators, auditors and risk managers to evaluate, communicate 
and report needed information for effective decision making and systems management.