Hacker claims to have stolen 1 B records of Chinese citizens, demands 10 BTC

[jackg]

Perhaps the fact the hacker is asking for such relatively low price has to do with the fact that most of the data involves normal citizens and even though it is highly sensitive information, it has no inmediate effective use for rival intelligence agencies, but I dont know I am just a normal with no ties to agencies so I could be completely wrong.

Perhaps there's too much data the hackers don't know how to actually analyse it themselves.

Since it contains so many records it might not split up convictions and accusations too or have other reasons it's not worth much to them (either that or it's a test to see if they can get them to payout something).

[PX-Z]

Just baffling though that the hackers is asking for just 10 BTC? Maybe he thinks that asking for me, the Chinese government or whoever agency is not going to pay him?

And let's say he did received his ransom, how can he hide it?

It wont change the effect if they really pay the hacker, its a digital copy of the personal information. They will only lost twice the cost if they pay.

What they only need is to enhance their security and practice to avoid something related to inside job. And relay things to others institution to get trace the hacker.

[TravelMug]

Perhaps the fact the hacker is asking for such relatively low price has to do with the fact that most of the data involves normal citizens and even though it is highly sensitive information, it has no inmediate effective use for rival intelligence agencies, but I dont know I am just a normal with no ties to agencies so I could be completely wrong.

Perhaps there's too much data the hackers don't know how to actually analyse it themselves.

Since it contains so many records it might not split up convictions and accusations too or have other reasons it's not worth much to them (either that or it's a test to see if they can get them to payout something).

True, but I don't think hackers will analyze that much, perhaps they will look for 'specifics', but that's it. They really have to dump it right away and ask for random money.

I agree that 10 BTC ≠ 1 Billion records, maybe it was a mistake on his side, should be like more than that. Or yeah, testing the waters so to speak if the Chinese government are going to entertain black mailers and cyber criminals. But there could investigations already and they are locating this cyber criminals and who knows what they are going to do with them if caught.

[ImThour]

Imagine stealing the data of 1 billion Chinese citizens just to request 10 BTC @ current market price which is just $200,000. 

The fact they were able to do that before anyone else makes it highly paid and I think they should get almost 1 Million however who am I to tell a government what to do.

Oh! And thanks for being bearish on BTC, Mr. China.

[2stout]

Wow, you'll probably have an entity of governments portraying themselves as one individual or group to buy and get their hands on this data.  With this approach if the records aren't all what they are cracked up to be, then cost is spread out and individual price points are significantly lowered. 

[NotATether]

Just baffling though that the hackers is asking for just 10 BTC? Maybe he thinks that asking for me, the Chinese government or whoever agency is not going to pay him?

He'll get arrested by Chinese police long before he sees a sat from this.

He knows that BTC is banned in China, I'm not sure who in the country would want (or can) pay him.

[Kemarit]

Wow, you'll probably have an entity of governments portraying themselves as one individual or group to buy and get their hands on this data.  With this approach if the records aren't all what they are cracked up to be, then cost is spread out and individual price points are significantly lowered. 

Not sure though why a government will want to have this data, what purpose it will serve them? Just a waster of taxpayers money if any of them go with it.

And with that CZ tweet though, makes this hack more pronounce.

But I will agree that asking for a penny change with this huge amount of data in your hand, something is not really right with this hackers.

[Cookdata]

Who said personal information obtained from organizations is unimportant? Some months ago, I was so focused on Beginner Board telling them how to prevent everything related to their internet privacy been broken, but many people were interested in my advice. I'm wondering how privates agency will handle stolen people's documents if these ones come from the government.
The hacker will undoubtedly profit from this, I'm confident of it because people on the dark web will be eager to buy it and use it for fraudulent purposes in order to make more money, and also as China been one of the world's most powerful countries, other countries may even disguise themselves in order to obtain information about high-profile people.

[Baofeng]

Just baffling though that the hackers is asking for just 10 BTC? Maybe he thinks that asking for me, the Chinese government or whoever agency is not going to pay him?

He'll get arrested by Chinese police long before he sees a sat from this.

He knows that BTC is banned in China, I'm not sure who in the country would want (or can) pay him.

Yeah, for sure the Chinese police are on the manhunt for this guy and maybe just a matter of time. The question is if they are late, maybe it was already in the dark web and some entities are willing to pay him with 10 BTC, so it's a bargain that anyone is willing to pay. And this could be the reason why this asking price is not that big, not even million of dollars are the current rate. So that he can get rid of the data and will not touch the ransom money for a long time and wait till we are in a bullish season again and obviously, that amount will grow as far as fiat value goes.

[DdmrDdmr]

According to this CNN article, the data seems to be real as per analysis of a small subset of the sample of 750K records that was made available by the seller.

The important detail that the article points out is that the data from the full set has been around hacker forums for … over a year …, having now made it its way to the media and the general public.

The person attempting to make the sell for 10 BTCs is likely an opportunist trying to get something out of it, and not the initial person to start shifting the data around over a year ago.

[Lucius]

How convenient for the police to keep records on every citizen in one system.

Nothing strange in the largest communist country in the world that wants to control every individual to the extent that it has already surpassed those from whom they once learned. The system called "one person, one file" has been in force for at least 6 years and is one of the largest mass surveillance projects in the world. The problem is, of course, that such data can leak out at any time - but such a bulky system can never be 100% perfect.

[arwin100]

Just baffling though that the hackers is asking for just 10 BTC? Maybe he thinks that asking for me, the Chinese government or whoever agency is not going to pay him?

And let's say he did received his ransom, how can he hide it?

Maybe the hackers are small group that's why they settle to ask 10 BTC only, also maybe they didn't think that the government will take this as huge threat that's why they lower down the bribe so that they can be paid easily by them.

Curious to know if Chinese hacker can do something towards this data leaking.

[dragonvslinux]

Imagine stealing the data of 1 billion Chinese citizens just to request 10 BTC @ current market price which is just $200,000.  

Imagine getting away with selling it 10-20 times to different buyers without them being aware  

Thinking they'd only sell one copy to one buyer is very naive imo, and not how darkweb works...

Just baffling though that the hackers is asking for just 10 BTC? Maybe he thinks that asking for me, the Chinese government or whoever agency is not going to pay him?

He'll get arrested by Chinese police long before he sees a sat from this.

He knows that BTC is banned in China, I'm not sure who in the country would want (or can) pay him.

They probably knows that stealing mass amounts of data from China is also illegal, but that didn't seem a concern.

Why would someone in the country need to buy it? They are selling it internationally surely...

[sunsilk]

I saw this news first on CZ and then with the group that I'm following, they've confirmed that it's actually on the market place and data that were stolen are for sale.

Now, most people now that are concerned about their data wouldn't be willing and will have that worry to send their data to any party and even the government since they can't protect their data.

AFAIK, this happened due to one personnel's error of accidently posting it on his blog.

[Oasisman]

Chinese government will not gonna accept this kind of offer just like the typical police protocol because hacker will keep doing this kind of scumy things in different manner just to get money from them.

Maybe they will track down the hacker and arrest him personally but it's very rare for a government to allow this kind of proposal regardless of the amount asked by hacker.

Tracking down that hacker requires a better hacker lol.
And no the government would not pay them with the amount being demanded. The hacker is gonna sell it to whoever is interested in it, maybe a company who loves to have an information from every single citizen from a specific country. That's also the reason why he publicised the threat.

Ever wonder why some people got random calls and emails from a company offering you promos and stuff like that but will eventually scam you. They are the target market for the hacker where they can sell these infos.

[Hispo]

Perhaps the fact the hacker is asking for such relatively low price has to do with the fact that most of the data involves normal citizens and even though it is highly sensitive information, it has no inmediate effective use for rival intelligence agencies, but I dont know I am just a normal with no ties to agencies so I could be completely wrong.

Perhaps there's too much data the hackers don't know how to actually analyse it themselves.

Since it contains so many records it might not split up convictions and accusations too or have other reasons it's not worth much to them (either that or it's a test to see if they can get them to payout something).

True, but I don't think hackers will analyze that much, perhaps they will look for 'specifics', but that's it. They really have to dump it right away and ask for random money.

I agree that 10 BTC ≠ 1 Billion records, maybe it was a mistake on his side, should be like more than that. Or yeah, testing the waters so to speak if the Chinese government are going to entertain black mailers and cyber criminals. But there could investigations already and they are locating this cyber criminals and who knows what they are going to do with them if caught.

They likely sought for something which can be used for relatively quick profit, like bank accounts private addresses of elite chinese citizens, if they could not find any of that then it is time for them to seek someone to pay for the huge amount of information itself.

If caught, I would not be surprised if they are punished with death, Chinese government has proven itselt to be quite efficient when comes to execute criminals of high enough caliber, keeping in mind this case damages the image of the Chinese digital system, death would be proper, at least in the eyes of the Chinese Communist Party, I assume.

[Botnake]

Perhaps the fact the hacker is asking for such relatively low price has to do with the fact that most of the data involves normal citizens and even though it is highly sensitive information, it has no inmediate effective use for rival intelligence agencies, but I dont know I am just a normal with no ties to agencies so I could be completely wrong.

Perhaps there's too much data the hackers don't know how to actually analyse it themselves.

Since it contains so many records it might not split up convictions and accusations too or have other reasons it's not worth much to them (either that or it's a test to see if they can get them to payout something).

Probably, but I think that the hacker probably want the data to sell it in dark web if in-case he wouldn't receive what he's asking and he's not interesting in analyzing it for other purposes, it was stated that he was just asking 10 bitcoin so it really seems that he just want the bitcoin and not the sensitive information of the Chinese citizens that he have.

[Fernando Gomez]

The government is not responding to this claim. Do you think they will do something about this?

[cryptomaniac_xxx]

The government is not responding to this claim. Do you think they will do something about this?

It's the Chinese government, authoritarian, so they might be doing something in 'secretive'.

And probably it's a race against time, as others have speculated that other entities could be interested on the huge data. So we don't know, maybe someone have bought it already from the hackers, or the Chinese has arrested the hackers. And I guess we will not know the truth after this report surfaces.

[uneng]

A supposedly hacker stated that he/ has stolen at least a billion of Chinese citizens record. The Shanghai National Police (SHGA) data was leaked with those information like: name, address, birthplace, national ID number, mobile number, all crime/case details.”

It looks a complete banquet for telemarketing sector of companies which have the masses as their target public. I don't know how is the approach of these services in China, but if it were in my country, my phone would be already ringing, receiving calls and messages all day long from those companies offering services and also from unknown senders trying to scam money.

Our informations aren't safe anywhere at this point, doesn't matter if under private or public vigilance. There are people profiting and making a living selling data from others to different buyers over internet and all you can do is to filter what kind of content you take in consideration on your phone register and email.