9 to 5 Mac reports that hackers accessed Foxconn's internal data and released the information (or 'dumped', in hacker/data-nerd parlance) online, including the logins and passwords for procurement sites, teh Intranets and email accounts, with the account of CEO and animal herder Terry Gou being no exception. more ›

Chinese hackers gained acces to one of the most heavenly guarded databases in the US and obtained everything stored on its systems. The stolen data includes information regarding the interests of many US businesses and trade associations, according to information just released by the US Chamber of Commerce. more ›

Former US Ambassador to China, current presidential candidate, and unwitting Jasmine Revolution supporter Jon Huntsman was interviewed on ABC last night on a variety of policy points and opinions such as just how crazy he thinks factions of the GOP really are. In a nod to his former post, one of the last questions asked by the interviewer regarded whether Huntsman thought the Chinese government was behind the impressive and sophisticated cyber attacks that targeted multinational corporations like Google, various world governments, the UN and even the White House. more ›

In a cyber attack recently uncovered by McAfee Security, 72 organizations across the world were targeted for periods of up to five years in an attack being described by some as the largest of its kind. Dubbed "Operation Shady RAT", targets of the attack included multinational corporations, tech companies, defense contractors, the UN, and various governments. Many believe only a "state actor" could be behind the attacks, and while few are naming names outright, fingers, as always, are eager to point at China. Why, you ask? Well, the targeting of multiple Asian countries and ASEAN were the first clues. But the dead giveaway was the hacking into the Olympics committees of multiple countries preceding the Beijing Olympics. Really, China, you should have known better. What other country on earth with that kind of espionage power would direct it at international sports bodies? more ›

With all the news about Chinese hackers and what they could be doing to mainframes all over the world(!), China watchers may find themselves searching up more hacker news and being confused by all that hacker terminology. Luckily, the site Chinese Hacks has compiled 25 useful words for cutting through all the jargon. Some, like 下载 (xia zai - download) and IP位址 (IP weizhi - IP address), should be familiar to anyone who uses the internet - but did you know the term for botnet, trojan or DDOS attack? Now you will! more ›

Sorry about the Foxconn overload lately but we thought this little hack job seen on the Foxconn HR site was kinda funny:

Foxconn -- We're Hiring more ›

• Residents in Suining, Sichuan Province have discovered a previously unseen animal that has been named the 'Chinese Chupacabra' by the People's Daily. A cross between a hairless badger and a dog, the County Forestry Department is currently doing further investigations on this animal. [Go Chengdoo]
• Officials warn that the droughts affecting Southwest China are to become more severe. So far the drought has left 24.25 million people and 15.84 million farm animals short of water. Liu Ning, vice-minister of water resources, has noted that the drought looks to be spreading into areas of Northern China. [China.org]
• Hong Kong is jumping onto the green bandwagon as top financial leaders call for action to be taken against the unhealthily high levels of air pollution in the city. Comments came after pollution levels were calculated as being double that of the previous year. [New York Times]

• But first - Hey! Look at this gallery on China's Communist Party mouthpiece Xinhua - maybe the CCP ain't so scawwy aftwer aww. [Xinhua]
• Ever heard of the Panda attack? It's a lot less adorable than it sounds - it was known as the "first case of organized cybercrime in China" after a worm attacked and funneled information from anybody who opened its email. It also provided a rare glimpse into the Chinese world of hackers. [Wall Street Journal]
• Caixin has an amazing profile on Wang Yali, a Hebei official who was raped by her second-grade teacher and then created a new fake identity for herself - one that rose to become a CPC official, a mistress of high-ranking members and businessmen, and the honor of one of Hebei's "Ten Outstanding Female Leaders." [Caixin]

We've documented the will-they-won't-they saga of Google possibly leaving China over hackers and censorship and what not. And then we documented the are-they-aren't-they saga of Google and China talking their problems out. Well, at least Google's CEO thinks both parties are going to reach a conclusion soon: Eric Schmidt told reporters at a media summit that "We are in active negotiations with the Chinese government... something will happen soon." more ›

In a seeming Schrödinger’s cat scenario, Chinese officials have refuted a Reuters report claiming that China is in negotiations with Google. Because the back-and-forth claims are a little tricky to follow, we broke it down to a he-said-she-said format. more ›

• Ho ho! Juicy! A Guangxi official was suspended from duties because his porn-filled sex diaries got leaked. And one person has graciously translated some excerpts for us. [Veggie Discourse]
• Thirteen Chinese newspapers have jointly appealed for social reform, attacking the hukou system as outdated and unfair. Though their editorials were quickly scrubbed away, this is unprecedented. [Guardian]
• Sure, Facebook's blocked here - but that hasn't stopped social game developers in this country from courting it. [Inside Facebook]

• China will prosecute 23 people for the CCTV tower that was set aflame last Chinese New Year... someday. Apparently no trial or hearing date has been set yet. [AFP]
• While much of the press about the Winter Olympics has been about Zhou Yang winning China's third gold, 2nd gold winner Wang Meng's disqualification is barely being whispered. [China Sports Today]
• Oxfam is now being blacklisted in China by the Education Ministry for allegedly having a "hidden political agenda." [Washington Post]

• Ah, fireworks. Here's one more video - this time of Shanghai welcoming in the Fortune God with a city-wide show that made us feel like we were part of The Blitz. Don't worry guys, soon it'll all be over. [Dan Washburn]


• While the last couple days have been bitterly cold, apparently the end of the Spring Festival also means the beginning of slightly more comfortable weather. Tomorrow, just as everyone gets back to work, temperatures are set to rise to about 13C. Sunday and Monday will see the weather get even warmer, heading to a high of between 14 to 16C. [Xinmin]


• Speaking of CNY almost being over, Shanghai is now bracing for the rush back. Wednesday reported a daily transport volume of 750,000 passengers, 70,000 more than on Tuesday. Today's supposed to be even worse, since it's the last day of the holiday. [Xinhua]

The front page of Baidu.com around early today. The Iranian Cyber Army is also responsible for hacking Twitter a few weeks ago. Your move, China! more ›

These statistics are mind numbing: China's new military website, http://www.mod.gov.cn, was attacked 230 million times by hackers in the first month of operation. The site, which is the government's last attempt at providing a level of transparency regarding their immensely secretive military buildup, was never successfully hacked into. If the numbers are correct, then that means over 5,000 hacks were attempted every minute: if that was just in the first month, how much do you think it's increased since then? more ›

• Yes, we told you about it before, but we wanted to remind you: Cherie Blair, wife of former-British PM Tony Blair, will be visiting Shanghai to talk about important things on August 16. The seminar will be from 3:30pm to 5:30pm and the wine salon will be from 5:30pm to 7:30pm. 380RMB pre-order and 480RMB at the door. [Urbanatomy]
• Blogger Jenn Wong has some great pictures up of the Nike Human Race, which happened over the weekend. Over 10,000 people participated. [Our Way to Fall]
• Shanghaiist contributor Rebekah Pothaar checked out the Dali exhibit, making sure to pose hilariously next to as many Dali masterpieces as she could. [Chinatravel.net]

Thought the whole Rebiya Kadeer movie controversy was over after Chinese filmmakers pulled out of the Melbourne International Film Festival in protest? Apparently it's only gotten more ridiculous. more ›

Most of the time when you read stories about the much reviled Chinese hacker it's in the context of some cyberattack perpetrated on some website that has stupidly dared to hurt the feelings of the Chinese people. But really, what are Chinese hackers doing most of the time: well, duh, same thing everybody else is: trying to make some moolah. more ›

Everybody's favorite portal for Chinese BBS happenings, chinaSMACK, has gone down in a Denial of Service attack suspiciously close to certain sensitive anniversaries. For those of you who don't need to deal with these kind of things, DoS attacks are when hackers flood a target's server in an attempt to keep it from functioning. Usually, it's done by either continuing to force the targeted computer to reset, or consume its resources so much that normal users are shoved out from accessing it. We don't really know how long chinaSMACK will be out of commission, or why it was brought down in the first place (though we have our suspicions - especially after reading this article), but we welcome anonymous tips to our tipline! Until we know, we'll just sit here desperately hoping it comes back soon. (Thanks Bryan!) more ›

The poor Shanghai nightlife institution has been hit by hackers! Specifically, Muslim Turkish hackers who would really love it if you stopped Israel from being involved in wars. What do the two have to do to with each other? Probably absolutely nothing (we've heard most hackers just troll the internet looking for unsecured sites), but wouldn't it be aMuseing if there was an actual connection there? more ›

• China says Obama should not meet the Dalai Lama [Associated Press] “China said Thursday that President Barack Obama should not meet the Dalai Lama, the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader, when he visits the United States in October. Although a meeting has not been confirmed, every president since George H.W. Bush has met the Dalai Lama, raising the ire of China, which says the Nobel Peace laureate is bent on splitting Tibet from China. "We firmly oppose the Dalai's engagement in separatist activities in any country under whatever capacity and under whatever name," Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu said when asked to comment on a possible meeting.”

Sure, here in China there's legitimate download sites and there's mp3.baidu.com, but if you've ever wanted to straggle the fence between legality and piracy, there's a way to do that too. Taobao has long been harboring many iTunes store gift voucher hackers, selling $200 USD (1,368 RMB) gift cards for as little as 18RMB. more ›

Chinese hackers have "penetrated the White House computer network on multiple occasions, and obtained e-mails between government officials", said a senior US official to the Financial Times:

On each occasion, the cyber attackers accessed the White House computer system for brief periods, allowing them enough time to steal information before US computer experts patched the system. more ›

"A stuntman filming John Woo's new movie in Beijing was killed in a bizarre fire when a small boat rammed into the set of an ancient warship, state media said on Tuesday." more ›

Danwei informs us that Carrefour.com.cn is currently "undergoing a website update and maintenance", but CarrefourS.com.cn is alive and hopping with nationalist messages and other "user-generated propaganda". Crazy times.
more ›

Since we broke the story on CNN's site outtage in China yesterday, the story was picked up by top US blogs such as Mashable and Gawker, although mainstream media continue to be strangely silent blissfully unaware of what happened. CNN's PR machine has since leapt into action as it seeks to explain what happened. This morning we received an email from CNN Worldwide's Director of Public Relations, Jennifer L. Martin, directing our attention to their report of yesterday's event here. In case some of you still have problems accessing the site, here it is:

CNN was targeted Thursday by attempts to interrupt its news Web site, resulting in countermeasures that caused the service to be slow or unavailable to some users in limited areas of Asia. more ›