China admits Anonymous hacks

Update - Anonymous wants to take down the Great Firewall of China

Earlier this week I wrote about how the hacktivist group Anonymous has a new Chinese branch, Anonymous China, which has been very active since it launched its Twitter account on March 30, 2012. The group has hacked and defaced hundreds of Chinese government, company, and other general websites over the last week. A few targets have had their administrator accounts, phone numbers, and e-mail addresses posted publicly. Last but not least, on many of the hacked sites, the group even posted tips for how to circumvent the Great Firewall of China. Surprisingly, the Chinese government has acknowledged the attacks.

While Anonymous was not specifically mentioned, it's obvious what China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs was referring to during a briefing on Thursday, given the events during the last week.

"First of all, China's Internet is open to all, users enjoy total freedom online. China has gained 500 million netizens and 300 million bloggers in a very short period of time, which shows the attraction and openness of China's Internet," spokesman Hong Lei said in a statement, according to CNN. "Secondly, the Chinese government manages the Internet according to law and regulations. Thirdly, certain reports prove again that China is a victim of internet hacker attacks."

Anonymous China has not relented. Since my last article, here's what the group has been up to.

First off, the group confirmed what many have thought for a while: they are not Chinese and they are not based in China. At least, most of them are not. This is why the text in Chinese is usually poorly translated (probably using Google Translate or Bing Translator). Anonymous China is working on fixing that. Here are the tweets that followed my last article:

Who want to translate what we do for Chinese, contact: anonymouschina@hush.com And for safety, anyone will know that were you to translate. For who doesn't understand the part "anyone will know", it's 'anyone will never' :) Our new email is contactanonchina@hush.com All the people that couldn't send the mails, try again for the new email. All that could, don't send. ReTweet! #GlobalREvolution coming! Fight for your rights!

Then it was back to business as usual. The Chinese government website tygtzy.gov.cn was hacked and defaced, though it appears to be back and operational at the time of writing. Then the group teamed up with some other hackers and targeted two Ugandan websites: unbs.go.ug and jlos.go.ug. The first one had one username and password posted on PasteBay while the second had two usernames and passwords posted, also on PasteBay.

Here are the tweets about the most recent attacks:

So Chinese Gov hacked again :D let's see what we have today ;) http://tygtzy.gov.cn/ hacked differently :D message in chinese \\\ lulz http://tygtzy.gov.cn/index_en.htm and here you have the hacked english version hahah http://jlos.go.ug/ hacked by @_f0ws3r , Anonymous China and @MalSec Leak: @YourAnonNews in the deface http://tygtzy.gov.cn/ this time with other song :D Chinese people, protest, stand up, wake up!

On a related note, I found it interesting that the group has started using pastebay.net instead of pastebin.com (see also: Pastebin to hunt for hacker pastes, Anonymous cries censorship). This may be a coincidence, but we'll see soon enough if other Anonymous factions abandon Pastebin as well.

Update - Anonymous wants to take down the Great Firewall of China

See also:

• Hacktivists stole 100 million records in 2011
• Anonymous: LulzSec returns on April Fools' Day?
• Anonymous hacks Panda Security in response to LulzSec arrests
• Anonymous hacks Vatican again
• Anonymous releases an OS?
• Anonymous is not taking down the Internet