Honker () or red hacker is a group known for

hacktivism 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. A form of Internet activism with roots ...

based predominantly in

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

. The name translates to "Red Guest", in reference to the 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 → and → the digraph , Cyrillic → , Armenian → or L ...

hacker A hacker is a person skilled in information technology who achieves goals and solves problems by non-standard means. The term has become associated in popular culture with a security hackersomeone with knowledge of bug (computing), bugs or exp ...

(黑客, hēikè, literally ''Black Guest'' as in black hat). The name "Honker" suggests that a hacker in red, the color of the

Chinese Communist Party The Communist Party of China (CPC), also translated into English as Chinese Communist Party (CCP), is the founding and One-party state, sole ruling party of the People's Republic of China (PRC). Founded in 1921, the CCP emerged victorious in the ...

, is sperate from and opposed to hackers in the dark (the "Black Guests" derived from the Chinese transliteration of the term "hacker"). The word "Honker" emerged after May 1999, when the United States bombed the Chinese embassy in

Belgrade Belgrade is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Serbia, largest city of Serbia. It is located at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers and at the crossroads of the Pannonian Basin, Pannonian Plain and the Balkan Peninsula. T ...

Yugoslavia , common_name = Yugoslavia , life_span = 1918–19921941–1945: World War II in Yugoslavia#Axis invasion and dismemberment of Yugoslavia, Axis occupation , p1 = Kingdom of SerbiaSerbia , flag_p ...

. In retaliation, hackers formed the Honker Union, whose members combined hacking skills with

nationalism Nationalism is an idea or movement that holds that the nation should be congruent with the state. As a movement, it presupposes the existence and tends to promote the interests of a particular nation, Smith, Anthony. ''Nationalism: Theory, I ...

. Honker Union proceeded to launch a series of attacks on websites in the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

, with a majority of targets being government-related sites. In the following years, Honkers remained active in

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)., Legally Hong Kong, China in international treaties and organizations. is a special administrative region of China. With 7.5 million residents in a territory, Hong Kong is the fourth most densely populated region in the wor ...

, but some media confused "Honker" or "Honker Union" to

Hongkongers Hongkongers (), Hong Kongers, Hong Kong citizens and Hong Kong people are demonyms that refer to a resident of Hong Kong, although they may also refer to others who were born and/or raised in the territory. The earliest inhabitants of Hon ...

. In January 2003, the "worm" SQL Slammer appeared in the Internet. As

proof of concept A proof of concept (POC or PoC), also known as proof of principle, is an inchoate realization of a certain idea or method in order to demonstrate its feasibility or viability. A proof of concept is usually small and may or may not be complete ...

exploit code for the SQL Server bug utilised by SQL Slammer, written by David Litchfield, was found in the Honker Union website, it was speculated that the worm was spread by the Honker Union. The

Associated Press The Associated Press (AP) is an American not-for-profit organization, not-for-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association, and produces news reports that are dist ...

incorrectly stated that Honker might be a Hong Kong hacking group, possibly due to aforementioned naming confusion. Though it was a mistake, Honker Union has since been falsely connected to Hong Kong in many other documents.

Relationship with the Chinese government

Although there is no evidence of the Chinese government overseeing the group and the official government stance being against cyber crime of any kind, the Honker Union and other freelance Chinese hackers hold a complex relationship with the Chinese government. Greg Walton notes in his studies that the 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 notes instances where members have profited off the Chinese government as a result of their skills and, and others where the Chinese government has recruited members of the Honker Union into security and military forces. Finally, Greg Walton points to calls within the group to be officially recognized and integrated into the Chinese government as evidence to a connection.

Attacks by the Honker Union

Sino-Iran Hacker War

After the Chinese website

Baidu Baidu, Inc. ( ; ) is a Chinese multinational technology company specializing in Internet services and artificial intelligence. It holds a dominant position in China's search engine market (via Baidu Search), and provides a wide variety of o ...

was hacked by the Iranian Cyber Army in 2010, Chinese hackers claiming to be members of the Honker Union began to launch retaliatory attacks against Iranian websites. Among other affected sites, the Iranian educational website iribu.ir was hacked. When opened during the attack, the iribu.ir home page would at first turn to black screen before 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 (; ; ; ), is a Provinces of the Philippines, province in the Philippines located in the Central Luzon Regions of the Philippines, region. Its capital is the city of Malolos. Bulacan was established on ...

provincial government's website was attacked by Chinese hackers.

Sino-Vietnamese Hacker War

As the South China Sea disputes 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 are 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 triggered a so-called "hacker war" between China and the Philippines. Numerous Chinese websites, including cyol.net and v.cyol.com, came under attack from Philippine hackers. Chinese hackers also attacked the homepage of the

University of the Philippines The University of the Philippines (UP; ) is a Higher education in the Philippines#State universities and colleges, state university system in the Philippines. It is the country's national university, as mandated by List of Philippine laws, Re ...

, replacing the site's content with 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''; ), or Greater Tibet, is a region in the western part of East Asia, covering much of the Tibetan Plateau and spanning about . It is the homeland of the Tibetan people. Also resident on the plateau are other ethnic groups s ...

an writer, blogger, and political dissident Tsering Woeser was reported to be under cyber-attack through her

Skype Skype () was a proprietary telecommunications application operated by Skype Technologies, a division of Microsoft, best known for IP-based videotelephony, videoconferencing and voice calls. It also had instant messaging, file transfer, ...

and email. Her accounts on both were impersonated, and her website was hacked. This attack was claimed by the Honker Union.

Attacks against Japanese websites

After the Japanese government announced a plan to purchase the

Senkaku Islands The Senkaku Islands, known as the Diaoyu Islands in China and the Tiaoyutai Islands in Taiwan, are a group of uninhabited islands in the East China Sea, administered by Japan. They were historically known in the Western world as the Pinnacle ...

(called Diaoyu Islands in China), Honker Union the denounced the move and called it a declaration of war. They then listed 100 Japanese entities as targets. In the two weeks following the declaration, Japanese central and local governments, banks, universities, and companies experienced various cyber attacks. These attacks included the defacing of websites and

distributed denial of service In computing, a denial-of-service attack (DoS attack) is a cyberattack 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.

References

{{reflist

External links

Honker Union of China
Hacker groups Hacker culture Cybercrime in India China–India relations Tibetan diaspora in India Hacktivists Cyberespionage units of the Ministry of State Security (China)