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Honker (simplified Chinese:红客;traditional Chinese:紅客;pinyin:hóngkè) orred hacker is a group known forhacktivism based predominantly inChina. The name translates to "Red Guest", in reference to the Chinesetransliteration ofhacker (黑客, hēikè, literallyBlack Guest as inblack hat). The name "Honker" suggests that a hacker in red, the color of theChinese Communist Party, is sperate from and opposed to hackers in the dark (the "Black Guests" derived from the Chinese transliteration of the term "hacker").
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The word "Honker" emerged after May 1999, when theUnited States bombed the Chinese embassy inBelgrade,Yugoslavia.[citation needed] In retaliation, hackers formed theHonker Union, whose members combined hacking skills withnationalism. Honker Union proceeded to launch a series of attacks on websites in theUnited States, with a majority of targets being government-related sites.[citation needed]
In the following years, Honkers remained active inhacktivism supporting the Chinese government against what they view as theimperialism of the United States and themilitarism of Japan.[citation needed]
The group is currently merged with theRed Hacker Alliance.[citation needed]
While Honker Union is not directly related toHong Kong, the fact that Honker can also meanHongkongers has caused some confusion in the media. In January 2003, the "worm"SQL Slammer appeared in the Internet. Asproof of concept exploit code for theSQL Server bug utilised by SQL Slammer, written byDavid Litchfield, was found in the Honker Union website, it was speculated that the worm was spread by the Honker Union. TheAssociated Press incorrectly stated that Honker might be a Hong Kong hacking group, possibly due to aforementioned naming confusion. Though it was a mistake, Honker Union has since been falsely connected to Hong Kong in many other documents.
Although there is no evidence of the Chinese government overseeing the group[1] and the official government stance being against cyber crime of any kind,[2] the Honker Union and other freelance Chinese hackers hold a complex relationship with the Chinese government.[1] Greg Walton notes in his studies that the Chinese government has been able to use the Honker Union as a "proxy force" when Beijing's political goals converge with the group's nationalist sentiment.[1] He also notes instances where members have profited off the Chinese government as a result of their skills and, and others where the Chinese government has recruited members of the Honker Union into security and military forces.[1] Finally, Greg Walton points to calls within the group to be officially recognized and integrated into the Chinese government as evidence to a connection.[1]
After the Chinese websiteBaidu was hacked by theIranian Cyber Army in 2010, Chinese hackers claiming to be members of the Honker Union began to launch retaliatory attacks against Iranian websites. Among other affected sites, the Iranian educational website iribu.ir was hacked. When opened during the attack, the iribu.ir home page would at first turn to black screen before the words "Long live The People's Republic of China" appeared. Numerous other Iranian governmental websites were also attacked.[citation needed]
After the 2010Rizal Park hostage-taking incident,Bulacan provincial government's website was attacked by Chinese hackers.[citation needed]
As theSouth China Sea disputes between China and Vietnam worsened in 2011, numerous Chinese website were attacked by Vietnamese hackers, displaying Vietnamese nationalist slogans such as "Vietnamese Hackers are the Best", "Vietnamese People are Willing to Sacrifice to Protect the Sea, Sky and Nation" etc.[3] The Honker Union retaliated with attacks on reportedly "more than a thousand Vietnamese websites", displaying the Chinese national flag and nationalist slogans on their homepages.[4]
In April 2014, theScarborough Shoal standoff triggered a so-called "hacker war" between China and the Philippines. Numerous Chinese websites, including cyol.net and v.cyol.com, came under attack from Philippine hackers. Chinese hackers also attacked the homepage of theUniversity of the Philippines, replacing the site's content with a map of the disputed Scarborough Shoal, along with slogans such as "We Come From China" and "Huangyan Island is Ours" (Huangyan Island is the Chinese name for the Scarborough Shoal).[5]
In May 2008, theTibetan writer, blogger, and political dissidentTsering Woeser was reported to be under cyber-attack through herSkype and email. Her accounts on both were impersonated, and her website was hacked. This attack was claimed by the Honker Union.[6][7]
After the Japanese government announced a plan to purchase theSenkaku Islands (called Diaoyu Islands in China), Honker Union the denounced the move and called it a declaration of war. They then listed 100 Japanese entities as targets. In the two weeks following the declaration, Japanese central and local governments, banks, universities, and companies experienced various cyber attacks. These attacks included thedefacing of websites anddistributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks.[8]