China shuts down online hacker boot camp

BEIJING — State media say police in central China have shut down a massive hacker training operation that openly recruited thousands of members and provided them with cyberattack lessons and malicious software.

The official China Daily newspaper said Monday police in Hubei province arrested three people who ran the Black Hawk Safety Net through which they are suspected of disseminating Trojan software and web site hacking techniques.

The paper says the site recruited more than 12,000 paying subscribers and collected more than US$1 million in membership fees.

The report says police seized nine servers, five computers and a car, and shut down all web sites involved in the case.

- AP