Any kid on the playground knows that if the boys get together and make an exclusive club, sooner or later the girls are going to try to join — or at least beat the guys at their own game. The ageless dynamic is playing itself out right now in the high-profile world of Chinese hacking, a career that brings its more successful members money, power and something akin to super-stardom in the eyes of normal netizens.

The global prominence of the Chinese hacker has risen in the past several years, in part because of alarmist U.S. media reports of guerilla breaches of high-security American government servers, like this one by CNN last March. But the international image of the Chinese super-hacker — a scrawny, nerdy Asian boy crouched over the screen — is quite different from the playful pictures on Xiao Tian's blog. Nineteen-year-old “general” Xiao Tian is the leader of the 2,200-strong Cn Girl Security Team, an all-female hack squad giving the guys a run for their money.

Members of the group have even established their own trainer websites, where aspiring computer-crackers can hone their skills — for a price. Like most else about the burgeoning field, it’s all about capitalism. At least that’s all that can currently be proven, though reports of pay-offs and incentives by the Chinese government have raised international fears of a nationalist cyber-army. Whether the community is more PLA or WOW may be uncertain, but it’s clear that girls are joining, and leading, the ranks.

Photo from nic221