A 24-year-old Chinese hacker names Zhang has been arrested by the Chinese police after he was tracked down on account of years of illicit online activities and the extortion of several websites.
Zhang, who’s a high school drop out, originally got into hacking when he tried to buy a piece of armour in a Chinese MMO, but couldn’t afford to do so. He then looked up ways of getting it illegally, which is when he started hacking accounts and using other people’s money to buy stuff for himself.
While doing all this research, Zhang learned a lot about hacking, and then went on to extort several websites. He once took down a web design company, and then anonymously called the company and claimed responsibility, demanding $8000 for the restoration of the site. He went on to do the same with two other companies, and thus accumulated $24,000.
Over the course of 2012, Zhang extorted $32,000 from seven websites collectively in a similar fashion. He was trying to extort a Chinese game company the same way when the police tracked his bank accounts to him, while he was sitting in a cyber cafe, indulging in the very activities that have gotten him into this mess.
Needless to say, the police were shocked that this 24 year old high school drop out has caused so much trouble. Well, at least we can be glad they caught him.
Get the full story here [via Kotaku].
