“Hacker school” trains next security experts
July 31, 2009 Filed under Feature
In the last three years, a million members have registered to learn "hacker technology" from Hackbase.
By Jin Zhu
But the site is trying to change its image with a new professional training institution for “Internet security,” which opened last month after Hackbase received an infusion of 10 million yuan in venture capital.
Its sister sites stand at a crossroads: How will they go about teaching Internet security without instigating online crime?
Training industry
Monday to Friday evenings, Hackbase.com runs hour-long online training sessions. Students need to pay to listen to the stream. And pay they do – as many as 1,500 students are connecting each night.
Hackbase, founded six years ago, started as a forum for Internet technology lovers, was originally supported by a small membership fee. But its activity has exploded in the last three years, and there are now more than a million members.
“Many people like me don’t have a good education or a wealthy family to fall bk on. But we still dream of becoming rich men. Learning Internet technology is a good to achieve that,” Ximengna, an 18-year-old who views the classes, said.
Anyone can start learning, regardless of their educational background, work experience or English skills. All it takes is a few hundred yuan to subscribe.
The Hackbase Computer Engineer courses teach students system installation and maintenance, Trojan virus analysis, firewalls and code protection, data recovery and how to attack and defend on the Internet.
Wang Xianbing, a security consultant for the website, said that after training, most people with a little experience can find a job as a network administrator.
The classes also attract people who want to learn about the basic technologies needed to protect their own systems, Wang said.
When Hong Kong’s infamous Sexy Photo Gate (when compromising photos starlets were stolen from actor Edison Chen’s computer and distributed online) happened, many students came to the class interested in protecting themselves,” he said.
Nowadays, as the Internet develops rapidly, the shortage of security is worsening.
“The market is big. Beida Jade Bird APTECH, a famous IT training institution, earns 2 billion yuan every year. According to a conservative estimate on market share, training in Interne security filled 15 to 20 percent of the market and is worth 300 million to 400 million yuan per year,” he said.
Last month, Wang secured 10 million yuan of venture capital for Hackbase to start a new series of on-site training classes.
“There is a five- to 10-year gap between the number of professionals and the number of positions. That is why even a website can get venture capital,” he said.
Sullied image
Wang was one of the top hackers among the first generation many years ago. To him, contemporary hackers are only chasing money. A generation ago, it was about curiosity and a love of technology.
After training, most people can find work as a network administrator.
“That is the reason that ‘hacker’ is almost a synonym for Internet criminal, which is miles away from the ’swordsman’ image created by the first generation,’ Wang said. The word for hackeheike, once conjured up images of the romanticized Chinese swordsman, or xiake.
He insisted that the class not be called as hacker school. The school teaches its millions of registered members the basic technologies until they achieve the rank of novice. But that is where the website’s supervision ends.
“It’s like teaching lock picking. No one can guarantee the student will become a professional locksmith rather than a future thief. It depends on whether the individual can maintain his integry in the face of temptation,” he said.
According to statistics from Hackbase.com, most of the new members seen since 2007 are fans of online games.
“Online games have been popular in China since 2002, and they have milions of players. However, interest in a new game rarely lasts more than three years. When people lose interest, learning to be hackers and earning money from the online games end up their next logical choice,” Wang said.
Besides pillaging personal accounts, many hackers are seeking bigger profits by attacking key game servers or stealing intelligence for the highest bidder.
“A new game comes out every day in China. Almost every online game website has faced a hacker attack. But no company wants to make that kind of news public – it could drive away players who bieve in their system’s security,” Ximengna said.
But faced with a determined hacker, most companies have only two options: hire someone better and more expensive, or compromise and pay off the hacker.
Few can really master the highest levels of attacking and defending. About 90 percent of the students give up, since the technology is so hard to learn. Most only master the most basic level, Huang Chengqing, deputy secretary of Internet Society of China, said.
“Most attacks are coming from average hackers working with older technology, yet companies are still at a serious disadvantage in Internet security,” he said.
Better future
How to deal with the government remains a tough topic for the industry.
Although there are no proven cases of students using their lessons to sack systems, the website still runs a risk of being deemed an Internet crime training camp.
“With sufficient venture capital, we can make out training sessions more organized and professional. We want to be a special training institution for Internet security engineers instead of a school for the nex criminal hacker,” Wang said.
Wang said national legislation has yet to catch up with the Internet age, and there are no laws limiting the research and study of hacker techniques. The legality hinges on course design. “The course should use experimental settings. They have to learn how to attack a website before they can learn how to defend it,” he said.
He hopes the training industry can cooperate with the government to increase mutual understanding, Huang Chengqing said.
3800hk.com, another famous training website, is engaged in cooperation with the government to monitor and control all the Internet cafes in Henan Province.
“Although it is a fre system, the website can also still turn a profit through product placement,” he said.
“Both for the industry itself and the officials, it is time to see the importance of this industry and see that it develops propery,” Huang said.
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