China Arrests Four In CSDN Data Breach; Related Breaches Proved To Be Hoaxes

More than 6 million users affected by hack; eight people punished for spreading faulty info

Dark Reading Staff, Dark Reading

January 12, 2012

1 Min Read

China has arrested four people and punished eight for a series of data breaches last month that caused the exposure of millions of users' data and several fraudulent claims of data breaches.

According to the official People's Daily, the user IDs, passwords, and email addresses of more than 6 million accounts registered on the programmers' network called CSDN were leaked. The social networking site Tianya was also breached.

These data leaks led to many online reports and rumors about other websites being hacked. Many of these reports were later proved to be hoaxes.

According to The People's Daily, Chinese authorities investigated the cases and found nine cases of reselling user data and three cases of fabricating and promoting speculation of data leaks. Four people were arrested and eight were punished, it said.

Chinese authorities said they will continue to crack down on hacking of data and the spreading of rumors related to breaches.

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Dark Reading Staff

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