TOKYO, Japan — Experts claim that users on China’s dark web barter hacking tips and other information that contribute to a growing wave of data theft and other cybercrime. “We’re looking for somebody who can break into websites in South Korea or Japan. There’s no need to respond if you lack the necessary skills or expertise “According to a post on a Chinese dark web forum. CNsecurity, a South Korean information security service provider, detected the request on January 25. According to CNsecurity, the post targeted job search and staffing websites, including those controlled by Tokyo businesses Mynavi and Recruit, as well as Japan’s public employment service network, dubbed Hello Work. The Chinese internet is unique in a number of ways, owing in part to the government’s efforts to block international information and platforms. This has resulted in the emergence of a specialized online ecosystem populated by hackers. According to SouthPlume, a Japanese CNsecurity agency, dark websites in China are unusual in two aspects. For starters, Chinese hackers connect with one another over social media in their home country. This effectively forms a members-only organization, as opposed to the general darknet, where websites can only be viewed through anonymizing browsers like Tor. The customary underground listings of drugs, guns, or child pornography are likewise absent from Chinese dark portals. According to SouthPlume, they largely traffic in personal information and hacking techniques for corporate sites. In February, Mynavi revealed that between January 17 and February 9, illegal logins for over 210,000 resumes were made on its website, while the company said it had not established that Chinese hackers were to blame. Since roughly 2017, credit card fraud has surged in Japan. This corresponds to an increase in Chinese visitors visiting the country, however any link between the two developments is difficult to establish. Sompo Risk Management, a subsidiary of Sompo Holdings, reported a July 2020 post in which a person posing as the head of a data analysis department at a publicly traded Chinese company attempted to trade hacked data. Information on dark sites is continuously changing, making it impossible to respond to a data breach once it has occurred. “The only way for risk-averse companies to deal with this is for each of them to take some form of preventive steps,” Toru Atsumi, a senior fellow at Sompo Risk Management’s cybersecurity branch, said./n
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