Chinese police shut down online hacker training business

A customer service officer contacted by phone, who refused to give his name, said the backup site provides content for its paying members to download course material to allow them to continue their computer lessons — though not in hacking.

The Hubei government refused to comment yesterday, while officials at the provincial public security bureau did not respond to repeated requests for comment.

Google threatened last month to pull out of China unless the government relented on censorship, an ultimatum that came after the search giant said it had uncovered a computer attack that tried to plunder its software coding and the e-mail accounts of human rights activists protesting Chinese policies.

Government officials have defended China's online censorship and denied involvement in Internet attacks, saying the country is the biggest victim of Web attacks. The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology said hackers tampered with more than 42,000 Web sites last year.

Meanwhile, scrutiny of Chinese Internet security grows following a rash of attacks traced to China and aimed at a wide array of United States (U.S.) and European targets, including military contractors, banks and technology companies.

Security consultants say it is hard to know what proportion of hacking from China is the work of individuals and whether the government is involved. But some say the high skill level of some attacks suggests China's military or other agencies might have trained or directed the hackers.

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