Honker () or red hacker is a group known for
hacktivism
In Internet activism, hacktivism, or hactivism (a portmanteau of ''hack'' and ''activism''), is the use of computer-based techniques such as hacking as a form of civil disobedience to promote a political agenda or social change. With roots in hac ...
, mainly present in
China. Literally the name means "Red Guest", as compared to the usual Chinese
transliteration
Transliteration is a type of conversion of a text from one script to another that involves swapping letters (thus ''trans-'' + '' liter-'') in predictable ways, such as Greek → , Cyrillic → , Greek → the digraph , Armenian → or L ...
of
hacker
A hacker is a person skilled in information technology who uses their technical knowledge to achieve a goal or overcome an obstacle, within a computerized system by non-standard means. Though the term ''hacker'' has become associated in popu ...
(黑客, hēikè, literally ''Black Guest'' as in
black hat
Black hat, blackhats, or black-hat refers to:
Arts, entertainment, and media
* Black hat (computer security), a hacker who violates computer security for little reason beyond maliciousness or for personal gain
* Black hat, part of black and whit ...
).
The word "Honker" emerged after May 1999, when the
United States bombed the Chinese embassy in
Belgrade,
Yugoslavia
Yugoslavia (; sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", Jugoslavija, Југославија ; sl, Jugoslavija ; mk, Југославија ;; rup, Iugoslavia; hu, Jugoszlávia; rue, label=Pannonian Rusyn, Югославия, translit=Juhoslavija ...
and since then, Honkers formed a Honker Union, whose members combined hacking skills with
nationalism
Nationalism is an idea and movement that holds that the nation should be congruent with the state. As a movement, nationalism tends to promote the interests of a particular nation (as in a group of people), Smith, Anthony. ''Nationalism: The ...
, and launched a series of attacks on websites in the
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...
, mostly government-related sites.
The name also suggests that a hacker in red, the color of the Communist party, is in combat with hackers in the dark. In the following years, Honkers remained active in
hacktivism
In Internet activism, hacktivism, or hactivism (a portmanteau of ''hack'' and ''activism''), is the use of computer-based techniques such as hacking as a form of civil disobedience to promote a political agenda or social change. With roots in hac ...
supporting the Chinese government against what they view as the
imperialism of the United States and the
militarism of Japan.
The group is currently merged with the
Red Hacker Alliance.
Media coverage
While Honker Union is not directly related to
Hong Kong
Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delta i ...
, the fact that Honker can also mean
Hongkongers has caused some confusion in the media. In January 2003, the "worm"
SQL Slammer appeared in the Internet. As
proof of concept
Proof of concept (POC or PoC), also known as proof of principle, is a realization of a certain method or idea in order to demonstrate its feasibility, or a demonstration in principle with the aim of verifying that some concept or theory has prac ...
exploit code for the
SQL Server bug utilised by SQL Slammer, written by
David Litchfield
David Litchfield (born 1975) is a British security expert and The Director of Information Security Assurance for Apple. Anne Saita, writing for ''Information Security'' magazine, called him along with his brother Mark Litchfield, "World's Best Bu ...
, was found in the Honker Union website, it was speculated that the worm was spread by Honker Union. The
Associated Press
The Associated Press (AP) is an American non-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association. It produces news reports that are distributed to its members, U.S. ne ...
misstated that Honker might be a Hong Kong hacking group, possibly due to aforementioned naming confusion. Though it was a mistake, Honker Union since then has been falsely connected to Hong Kong in many other documents.
Relationship with Chinese government
Although there is no evidence of Chinese government oversights of the group,
with the official government stance against cyber crime of any kind, the Honker Union and other freelance Chinese hackers have a complex relationship with the Chinese government.
Greg Walton noted in his studies that Chinese government has been able to use the Honker Union as a "proxy force" when Beijing's political goals converge with the group's nationalist sentiment.
He also noted instances of members profited off the Chinese government for their skills and the Chinese government recruited members into security and military forces.
Finally, Greg Walton pointed out that there are some calls within the group to be officially recognized and integrated into the Chinese government.
Attacks by Honker Union
Sino-Iran Hacker War
After Chinese website
Baidu
Baidu, Inc. ( ; , meaning "hundred times") is a Chinese multinational technology company specializing in Internet-related services and products and artificial intelligence (AI), headquartered in Beijing's Haidian District. It is one of the l ...
was hacked by the
Iranian Cyber Army
The Iranian Cyber Army is an Iranian computer hacker group. It is thought to be connected to Iranian government, although it is not officially recognized as an entity by the government. It has pledged loyalty to Supreme Leader of Iran.
According t ...
in 2010, Chinese hackers claiming to be members of the Honker Union began retaliating attacks on Iranian websites. Iranian educational website iribu.ir was hacked. At first the iribu.ir home page turned to black screen, then the words "Long live The People's Republic of China" appeared. Numerous other Iranian governmental websites were also attacked.
Attack against the Philippines
After the 2010
Rizal Park hostage-taking incident,
Bulacan
Bulacan, officially the Province of Bulacan ( tl, Lalawigan ng Bulacan), is a province in the Philippines located in the Central Luzon region. Its capital is the city of Malolos. Bulacan was established on August 15, 1578, and part of the Me ...
provincial government's website was attacked by Chinese hackers.
Sino-Vietnamese Hacker War
As the
South China Sea disputes
Territorial disputes in the South China Sea involve conflicting island and maritime claims in the region by several sovereign states, namely Brunei, the People's Republic of China (PRC), Taiwan (Republic of China/ROC), Indonesia, Malaysia, Ph ...
between China and Vietnam worsened in 2011, numerous Chinese website were attacked by Vietnamese hackers, displaying Vietnamese nationalist slogans such as "Vietnamese Hackers are the Best", "Vietnamese People is Willing to Sacrifice to Protect the Sea, Sky and Nation" etc. The Honker Union retaliated with attacks on reportedly "more than a thousand Vietnamese websites", displaying the Chinese national flag and nationalist slogans on their homepages.
Sino-Philippines Hacker War
In April 2014, the
Scarborough Shoal standoff
The Scarborough Shoal standoff refers to the tensions between the Republic of the Philippines and the People's Republic of China over the disputed Scarborough Shoal. Tensions began on April 8, 2012, after the attempted apprehension by the Philipp ...
triggered a so-called "hacker war" between China and the Philippines. Numerous Chinese websites, including cyol.net and v.cyol.com and five others, came under attack from Philippine hackers. Chinese hackers also attacked the homepage of the
University of the Philippines
The University of the Philippines (UP; fil, Pamantasan ng Pilipinas Unibersidad ng Pilipinas) is a state university system in the Philippines. It is the country's national university, as mandated by Republic Act No. 9500 (UP Charter of 20 ...
, turning it into a map of the disputed Scarborough Shoal, along with slogans such as "We Come From China" and "Huangyan Island is Ours".
(Huangyan Island is the Chinese name for the Scarborough Shoal)
Tsering Woeser
In May 2008, the
Tibet
Tibet (; ''Böd''; ) is a region in East Asia, covering much of the Tibetan Plateau and spanning about . It is the traditional homeland of the Tibetan people. Also resident on the plateau are some other ethnic groups such as Monpa, Taman ...
an writer/blogger and political dissident
Tsering Woeser
Tsering Woeser (also written Öser; ; , Han name Chéng Wénsà 程文萨; born 1966) is a Tibetan writer, activist, blogger, poet and essayist.
Biography
Woeser, a quarter Han Chinese and three quarters Tibetan, was born in Lhasa. Her grandfath ...
, was reported to be under cyber-attack through her
Skype
Skype () is a proprietary telecommunications application operated by Skype Technologies, a division of Microsoft, best known for VoIP-based videotelephony, videoconferencing and voice calls. It also has instant messaging, file transfer, deb ...
and email accounts being impersonated, also her website was hacked. This attack was claimed by Honker Union.
Attacks against Japanese websites
After the Japanese government announced a plan to purchase the
Senkaku Islands (called Diaoyu Islands in China), Honker Union denounced the move and called it a declaration of war. They then listed 100 Japanese entities as targets. For two weeks after that, Japanese central and local governments, banks, universities, and companies experienced various cyber attacks. These attacks include
defacing of websites and
distributed denial of service
In computing, a denial-of-service attack (DoS attack) is a cyber-attack in which the perpetrator seeks to make a machine or network resource unavailable to its intended users by temporarily or indefinitely disrupting services of a host conne ...
(DDoS) attacks.
See also
*
The Dark Visitor
*
Red Hacker Alliance
*
RedHack (from Turkey)
References
{{reflist
External links
Honker Union of China
People's Republic of China culture
Hacker groups
Computing culture