Honker Union of China to launch network attacks against Japan is a rumor

More drama on Sino-Japan relations, recently there has been non-stop rumors about Honker Union of China is going to launch a network attack against Japanese government websites on September 18, to commemorate Mukden Incident (9.18 incident) and of course to protest the recent fishing boat incident and giant panda incident.

Honker (红客hóngkè) is a group known for hacktivism, mainly present in Mainland China. Literally the name means "Red Guest", as compared to the usual Chinese transliteration of hacker (黑客, hēikè, literally Black Guest).

However, apparently it was just a rumor after all. A public notice was posted on the official Honker Union of China website as the following:

Notice to Honker Union general members!

Recently, tension has been built up between China and Japan, some of the patriotic hackers and honkers also are ready to make a move, boldly publicizing to launch network attacks on Japan. The real war on the networks has no smoke and fire. Publicizing to launching cyber attacks against certain country can only give excuses for other country to establish network army and network forces. Why does the United States claim Chinese hackers a threat? The reason is to give excuses for themselves to build up a strong network army. When have you ever heard the American hackers organizing publicly to launch cyber attack against certain country? But in fact, they meet the objective of stealing sensitive information by infiltrating other countries’ network systems. Therefore, the organization or the person who boldly publicized to launch network attacks against Japan is only doing a publicity stunt for themselves. What benefit can hacking a web page bring our country and the people? It is only a form of emotional catharsis, please do not launch any pointless attacks, the real attack is to fatally damage their network or gain access to their sensitive information. Any attack will be executed silently, rather than vigorously promoting it. And also everyone please work hard on learning technologies, as Chinese, you have no right to escape the responsibility at any time. On the issue of Japan illegally arrested our fishermen, it is not that China is easy to be bullied, but any country that starts a war will become the enemy of the international anti-war alliance, which will give certain country new excuses to send troops to maintain peace in the world, and also will bring disaster to the people. Please take a look at the situation China is facing today, China on the map is already being surrounded by a c-shaped ring. Every world war always broke out from where the world economy shifted to, and today, unfortunately, the world economy center is shifting to China, can China avoid a war? I want to tell the vast number of passionate young people in China, if China is in war in the next 20 years, what can you do? Are you ready???

– NCC Honker Union of China – the world’s largest Honker organization

Then some said the rumor actually came from Japanese media, and it was deliberately reported to make China look bad…

More about China Honker Union from Baidu:

Honker Union of China, also known as H. U. C. was established in late 2000, led by a legendary hacker named LION, which attracted many highly skilled hackers in the nation. Its members now have reached over 80,000 people, ranked as the world’s #5 hacker organization. This organization mainly counterattacks on attacks launched by foreign organizations, in which the counterattack against the White House Website in 2001 was the most famous one. On December 31 2004, the fourth anniversary of the establishment, HUC announced to disband the group in an open letter published on its website and also closed down the site soon after. April 2005 the website was up again, and June 2010 Honker Union of China has is once again reformed.

Core Staff Members:

LION, Honker Union webmaster, the founder of Honker Union, now engaged in network security

Bkbll, core member of the Honker Union, responsible for Union’s daily affair, student

Yaya, core member, mainly responsible for Union’s daily affair, accounting and network management

Redfreedom, core member, mainly responsible for attacks on the United States, student, technical director

NiklNanA, core member, mainly responsible for organizing union activities, student network administrator

Other core members: HD_Format, 甜心、赤月

Important Events:

HUC has 7 times launched external attacks

1. May 1998, network attack against Indonesia.

Reason: Riots happened in Indonesia, and during the time many Chinese people were persecuted, and Chinese women rapped.

2. May 1999, network attack against the United Sates

Reason: Early in war of Kosovo in 1999, Chinese hackers did not take too much extreme actions on the websites of United States and NATO countries.

3. August, 1999, network attack against Taiwan

Reason: July 9, 1999, Lee Tenghui (president of Taiwan at the time) was interviewed by “Deutsche Welle”, (German radio station) and proposed so-called "two-states theory." (两国论)

4. Jan-Feb, 2000, network attack against Japan

Reason: January 21, 2000, the Supreme Court of Japan ignored the historical facts, blatantly decided against the litigation of veteran Shiro Azuma who participated in and witnessed Nanking massacre.

5. April, 2001 network attack against the United States

Reason: April 1, 2001, the U.S. military spy plane crashed into Chinese fighter plane and led to the death of pilot Wang Wei.

right after LION announced to disband the Union, and Binger took leadership

The United States Navy website hacked by HUC in 2001

6. 2005, network attack against Japan

Reason: Japan pay homage to Yasukuni Jinja and so on actions

This attack targeted the Japanese military, government, hospitals, large enterprises. It was the most comprehensive attack. Right after Binger announced the Union is disbanded. Since then there had appeared numerous Honker Union of China websites on the internet.

Development Concept:

1. Our offensive and defensive skills are not used to show off!

2. Our technology is to share with all patriotic Honkers!

3. We will continue to learn, and continually research new techniques of attacks and defenses!

4. We must familiar with the C language, and any other language of the target!

5. We must be patriotic!

6. We not only need to know the common exploits of the systems, but also need to know how to discover exploits!

7. We must know how to use search engine, it is a very good tool for learning!

8. We must know how to break the conventional way of thinking! “Nothing is impossible, if we can think of, then we can do it! There is no “room” we can’t enter, if the “room” allows air to go in then we can become “air” and go into the room!

9. We must know how to conduct oneself! – learning skills must first learn how to conduct oneself!