Chinese police crack down on ‘ethical hacking’ community for undisclosed reasons, detain 10 members.

Dark Reading Staff, Dark Reading

August 1, 2016

1 Min Read

Nine senior members of the largest "ethical hacking” group in China have been arrested along with founder Fang Xiaodun, for undisclosed charges, the Hong Kong Free Press said, quoting a Caixinwang report. Speculations about the detentions include legal or government issues, with some believing the group may have hacked official networks without authorization.

Wooyun, a non-profit organization of 5,000 white-hat hackers, broke into websites to expose system vulnerabilities and warn owners before they could be breached by criminals. The flaws were not publicized unless the sites didn't fix them.

The arrests were sudden and unexpected, say sources. But on July 18, Fang stopped updating his WeChat, and a day later, the Wooyun website was found indefinitely suspended due to an upgrade.

For more on this story, see this article.

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Dark Reading Staff

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