Hackers Leak Data of 46 Million Users in China

Hackers stole data from more than six million accounts registered to CSDN—China’s largest website for programmers—last Wednesday. State-run Xinhua News Agency reported hackers published user IDs, emails and passwords online in plain text—meaning anyone could access and read the information.

On Sunday, one of China’s largest social media websites, Tianya, reported that 40-million users' account information had been stolen and leaked.

The hacks happened in the same week when authorities started requiring that microblog users register with their real names. Some believe the two may be related.

[Mr. Wang, Co-founder, Chinalabs.com]:
"I think this is a payback for the 'real name registration' system. A similar thing happened in South Korea when hackers leaked account passwords—when real name registration was imposed. Korea ended up scrapping those plans. So I think China may be facing a similar problem. With this real name registration, if authorities cannot guarantee the protection of the data, then the system can’t be implemented."

For now, websites are asking affected users to change their passwords. But analysts like the former president for Yahoo China, Xie Wen, say that won't solve the problem because China’s cyber security is low.

[Xie Wen, Former President, Yahoo China]:
"A lot of Chinese internet companies are poorly constructed, with low quality technical input. Backend websites are not up to par with mainstream standards, so actually I’m not surprised that this kind of hacking happened. I believe the user data of 90% of Chinese websites can be hacked by someone with very basic skills."

Experts pointed out that establishing and perfecting a complete individual information system should come first, before rushing to require real-name registration.