14 DAY TRIAL // Gong Wei and Wan Tao are two Chinese hackers who've realized that doing evil deeds is not the way. Now they've published a book in which they try to convince others to join their cause in developing more reliable security solutions.
The book called "Hackers' Self-Discipline Convention" tries to reach out to cybercriminals, in an effort to persuade that their expertise would be much more useful if they'd use it for more ethical reasons.
A passage in the document, translated by Dark Readings, reveals “The privacy of the community, the general public, especially children and minors, should be protected. To the general public, sale of social activities for the purpose of private information is not hacking."
The Convention tries to wash China's image in front of the world, which lately has been naming its people to be some of the most notorious hackers, government funded cybercriminals not being news to anyone.
"I am torn over what I think that [document] might be [for]. Most likely, it's recognition of a personal journey for those guys. They were each a founder of a large hacking community," Richard Bejtlich, chief security officer and vice president at Mandiant stated.
"I think this is how they are evolving their careers and business interests ... an attempt by these guys to put an element of legitimacy to their businesses. They are probably trying to do legitimate business, but they have this history of being malicious hackers."
While some praise the gesture and think of it as being a great way for China to prove to the world that they're not all bad, others claim that this is only “a new tactic, which has the support of the Chinese government."
According to TechWorld, Gong and Wan made their plans to write the book public after a decision of the Chinese supreme court in which it ruled that hackers could be subject to penalties based on existing laws. The document also attempts to attract young technology enthusiasts to the good side of the barricade.