The International Herald Leader, a newspaper under the Xinhua News Agency, posted an article stating that the hacker business is an established gray industrial chain China. The article stated, “‘Hacker’ does not necessarily mean ‘wrecker." But the ‘wrecker’ part of the hacker business has become a large-scale industrial chain with more than 200 million yuan in annual income.” The hackers’ industrial chain includes: the “thief hackers,” who steal valuable network information; the “gun sellers,” who sell hacker tools and provide after-sale technical support; the “hired network killers,” who normally use a DDOS approach to attack web sites; and hacker trainers, whose teaching covers the technology of virus and Trojan creation and network attacks. It was said that a typical hacker’ web site can bring at least two to five million yuan annually.
Source: Xinhua, June 12, 2009
http://news.xinhuanet.com/herald/2009-06/12/content_11529888.htm