Remorseful Hacker Donates Money to Panda Research

A remorseful Chinese hacker has donated 50,000 yuan ($7,515) to protect pandas after he used the image of the endangered bears as messengers for a virus, Xinhua reports.

Li Jun recently served a four-year prison sentence for his role in creating the “joss-stick burning panda” virus, which infected and damaged millions of computers worldwide. The virus changed desktop icons into cartoon pandas that deleted files and attacked…

Bruce Schneier: Cyber War Treaties Needed to Battle Digital Weaponry

Governments should set up hotlines between their cyber commands, similar to those used between nuclear commands, to help them battle against cyber attacks, as well as establish treaties to battle digital weaponry,  a security expert proposes.

Writing an op-ed for Financial Times, security guru Bruce Schneier highlights that the unknown nature of cyber…

China’s Cyber Crime Situation Remains ‘Very Grave’

Police in China have solved 180 cyber attack cases and arrested more than 460 suspects as of the end of November, but the cyber crime situation in the country remains “very grave,” said an unnamed ministry official.

Additionally, 14 websites have been shut down for allegedly distributing hacker software, training hackers and organizing attacks, according to a…

Commission Warns of China’s Rerouting of US Web Traffic

A new report submitted to Congress by the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission expresses concerns over China’s alleged ability to control and manipulate Internet traffic, Computerworld reports.

The report highlights two incidents earlier this year, where actions taken inside China directly impacted web traffic in the United States and…

Zombie Virus Infects Multitude of Cellphones in China

A virus posing as an anti-virus application has infected more than a million cellphones in China, according to Shanghai Daily.

The virus, known as Zombie, allows the hackers to take control of the device and then to send infected links to other cellphones using the user’s address book.

News outlets in China have reported that at least 10 other applications similar to the one containing the Zombie virus have been…

Chinese Official Urges US Collaboration to Battle Cyber Crime

China urgently needs to collaborate with the United States to combat cyber crime, an official of the Ministry of Public Security said.

Gu Jian, vice director of the ministry’s network security protection bureau, said since computer crimes were included in China’s Criminal Law last year, police have dismantled more than 80 gangs involved in…

China-Based Hackers Steal North Korean Defense Secrets

Hackers in China have stolen secrets on South Korea‘s defense and foreign affairs by using fake emails claiming to come from Seoul officials and diplomats, a spokesman for the South Korean National Intelligence Service told AFP.

Hackers sent emails purporting to be from South Korean diplomats, presidential aides and other people familiar to Seoul officials. The messages, disguised as important information on North Korea’s economy, contained attachments…

Aussie Military under Continuous Attack by Foreign Hackers

The Australian military networks are under continuous attack by foreign spy agencies, according to the country’s top electronic intelligence unit, the Defence Signals Directorate.

TechEYE.net reports that foreign spies are making 700 probes every month into Australia’s military networks, a number that last year was 200. It is not clear what the spies are looking for, as the Australian military is mostly engaged in peace-keeping missions–information that is readily available…

Let the Cyber-War Games Begin: DHS Kicks Off Cyber Storm III to Test Internet Preparedness

Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano yesterday announced the launch of Cyber Storm III—a three-day long, DHS-sponsored drill that aims to examine the nation’s response capabilities in the event of a cyber attack.

“Securing America’s cyber infrastructure requires close coordination with our federal,…

Chinese Hackers Suspected of DDoS Attacks against Japan

In the wake of the Sept. 7 sea dispute involving a Chinese fishing boat that collided with two Japanese patrol vessels near a disputed island chain, Japan suspects Chinese hackers last week cyber attacked its defense ministry and national police agency websites.

The government is looking into the assaults after China’s largest known hacker group had warned it would target Japanese government websites until Saturday in protest over the maritime…