Chinese Authorities Crack Down on Hacker Crimes, Arresting Over 7,000 Suspects

According to Foresight News, the Chinese Ministry of Public Security held a press conference in Beijing on November 30th to report on the measures and overall effectiveness of combating hacker-related crimes. Since 2022, a total of 2,430 hacker-related criminal cases have been solved, and 7,092 suspects have been arrested nationwide. The authorities stated that the current trend of hacker crimes includes the continuous upgrading of criminal methods with the development and changes of new technologies, new industries, and new applications such as artificial intelligence, blockchain, and the Internet of Things. For example, using artificial intelligence technology to forge portraits and voices, exploiting blockchain smart contract vulnerabilities to issue a large amount of 'virtual currency' to defraud others' property, and other new situations are emerging. Among the top ten typical cases announced by the public security authorities, there is a case in Sichuan where a hacker group issued virtual currency under the guise of disaster relief. The group released the 'Sichuan Refueling Coin' in the name of earthquake relief, luring netizens to buy it and then using a backdoor to issue a large amount of cash. The amount of money involved in the case is 12 million yuan.