Word: tanned
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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Gathered around the table at a restaurant in Chengdu on a recent evening, Tan, a.k.a. Withered Rose, and seven other members of the NCPH workshop don't look as though they could bring the U.S. economy to a halt. All in their early 20s, rail thin and with the prison pallor acquired from long nights spent hunched over monitors, they look like what they are: a bunch of nerds. They refuse to give their real names, referring to one another by nicknames--Blacksmith, Firestarter, Fisherman, Floorsweeper, Chef, Plumber, Pharmacist. All vehemently deny having anything to do with attacks...
...what does the NCPH, which Tan founded in 2004 when he was a student at Sichuan University of Science and Engineering, actually do? The answer starts out vague, but eventually pride gets the better of the young men. They acknowledge that the group first got its reputation by hacking 40% of the hacker associations' websites in China. That was during their "young and hotheaded college days," as Fisherman puts it. The NCPH is also famous for the remote-network-control programs they wrote and offered for download. These programs, which allow hackers to take over other computers, are exactly...
...iDefense reports say that beginning in May 2006, the Chengdu group "launched a barrage of attacks against multiple U.S. government agencies ... The result of all of this activity is that the NCPH group siphoned thousands--if not millions--of unclassified U.S. government documents back to China." Citing evidence of Tan's close ties to the military and other Chinese hackers' organizations that have been suspected of acting on behalf of the military, the reports conclude that Tan and the NCPH were almost certainly acting on behalf of and funded by the Chinese armed forces. "Most likely," the reports suggest, "hundreds...
...Tan is a successful graduate of this system. He earned $4,000 in prize money from hacker competitions, enough to make him worthy of a glowing profile in Sichuan University's campus newspaper. Tan told the paper that he was at his happiest "when he succeeds in gaining control of a server" and described a highly organized selection and training process that aspiring cybermilitiamen (no cyberwomen, apparently) undertake. The story details the links between the hackers and the military. "On July 25, 2005," it said, "Sichuan Military Command Communication Department located [Tan] through personal information published online and instructed...
With the help of experts from Sichuan University, the story continued, Tan's team won the competition and then had a month of intense training organized by the provincial military command, simulating attacks, designing hacking tools and drafting network-infiltration strategies. Tan was then chosen to represent the Sichuan Military Command in competition with other provinces. His team won again, after which, the iDefense reports say, he founded the NCPH and acquired an unidentified benefactor ("most likely the PLA") to subsidize the group's activities to the tune of $271 a month...