Chinese hacking firm buys officials’ favor with alcohol, women

• By Dake Kang and Zen Soo / AP, BEIJING

China’s hackers for hire take government officials out for lavish banquets, binge drinking and late-night karaoke with young women to win favor and business, as revealed last month in a highly unusual leak of internal documents from a private contractor linked to Chinese police.

China’s hacking industry is vast in size and scope, but also has shady business practices, disgruntlement over pay and work quality, and poor security protocols, the documents showed.

Private hacking contractors are companies that steal data from other countries to sell to Chinese authorities. Over the past two decades, Chinese state security’s demand for overseas intelligence has soared, giving rise to a vast network of private hackers for hire companies that have infiltrated hundreds of systems outside China.

Photo: AP

Although the existence of these hacking contractors is an open secret in China, little was known about how they operate.

However, the leaked documents from a firm called I-Soon (安洵信息) have pulled back the curtain, revealing a seedy, sprawling industry where corners are cut, and rules are murky and poorly enforced in the quest to make money.

Leaked chat records showed that I-Soon executives are colluding with competitors to rig bidding for government contracts. They pay thousands of dollars in “introduction fees” to contacts who bring them lucrative projects.

I-Soon has not commented on the documents.

Mei Danowski, a cybersecurity analyst who wrote about I-Soon on her blog, Natto Thoughts, said the documents showed that China’s hackers for hire work much like any other industry in China.

“It is profit driven,” Danowski said. “It is subject to China’s business culture — who you know, who you dine and wine with, and who you are friends with.”

Although I-Soon boasted about its hacking prowess in…