Chinese, US Hackers Fought All OutThe online tit-for-tat between Chinese and US hackers was triggered by a US spy plane bumped into a Chinese fighter jet April 1. Soon after the mid air collision was an all-out offensive on Chinese websites by US hackers, with a daily over hundred assaults launched in a whole month of time from the US side. By the end of April over 600 Chinese websites, including many in Taiwan, had come under fire or totally broke down. Facing the challenge as an attack from "American hackers to smash all Chinese servers", the Chinese side immediately took up the fight. Many hackers' organizations known as China Honkers Union and Hackers Union of China promptly responded in an all-out cyberwar against their US counterparts May 1 to 7. To no small extent had the White House and Pentagon been alarmed over Chinese Honkers' attack and all US networks had even been alerted by the FBI's National Infrastructure Protection Center (NIPC) April 27 to be on guard and adopt countermeasures as a way out. The fact was that by 10pm May 1 there were 92 sites put under attacks of Chinese Honkers, including the Energy Committee and state Secretary of California. At 10pm May 4, White House's official site was crippled. On the morning of May 5, over 1,400 US sites were blackened, far more than those crippled in China. Instead of carrying out fight single-handedly as they had once done, the Chinese Honkers took their US counterparts in coordinated attacks, surprising most American Internet experts. Chinese Honkers chiefly targeted their attacks at commercial sites (.coms), spared most .govs and .orgs, and didn't touch .edus. Their attacks were also limited to defacing web pages. Members of Honkers were not allowed to attack individual users and lawful sites, otherwise they would be expelled from the Honkers' rank. In contrast, US hackers followed no principles and attacked at random, targeting many sites of education departments. Besides, Chinese hackers took to no verbal attacks or filthy words while most of their American counterparts left obscenity-laden anti-Chinese statements. Some 80,000 people had been involved in the hackers' war. As war escalated many people called for a halt to the insanity of the war as it risked network security and had caused untold damages to both countries. The Chinese hackers were also urged to call off all irrational actions and turn their enthusiasm into strength to build up the country and safeguard world peace. By PD Online staff member Li Heng |
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