Hackers for sale: What we’ve learnt from China’s massive cyber leak

BEIJING – A massive data leak from Chinese cyber-security firm I-Soon has offered a rare glimpse into the inner workings of Beijing-linked hackers.

I-Soon has yet to confirm the leak is genuine and has not responded to a request for comment from AFP.

As at Feb 23, the leaked data was removed from the online software repository GitHub, where it had been posted.

Analysts say the leak is a treasure trove of intelligence into the day-to-day operations of China’s hacking programme, which the United States’ Federal Bureau of Investigation says is the biggest of any country.

From staff complaints about pay and office gossip to claims of hacking foreign governments, here are some of the key insights from the leaks:

Who got hacked?

Every day, workers at I-Soon were targeting big fish.

Government agencies from China’s neighbours, including Kyrgyzstan, Thailand, Cambodia, Mongolia and Vietnam, had websites or e-mail servers compromised, the leak revealed.

There are long lists of targets, from British government departments to Thai ministries.

I-Soon staff also boasted in leaked chats that they secured access to telecom service providers in Pakistan, Kazakhstan, Mongolia, Thailand and Malaysia, among others.

They named the government of India – a geopolitical rival of Beijing’s – as a key target for “infiltration”.

And they claimed to have secured back-end access to higher education institutions in Hong Kong and self-ruled Taiwan, which China claims as part of its territory.

But they also admitted to having lost access to some of their data seized from government agencies in Myanmar and South Korea.

Other targets are domestic, from China’s north-western region of Xinjiang to Tibet and from illegal pornography to gambling rings.

Who was paying them?

Judging from the leaks, most of I-Soon’s customers were provincial or local police departments – as well as province-level state security agencies responsible for protecting the Communist Party from perceived threats to its rule.

The firm also offered clients help protecting their devices from hacking and securing their communications – with many of their contracts listed as…