CRACK99 : the takedown of a $100 million Chinese software pirate

243 Pages·2015·1.44 MB·English

by  Hall

For my family
There is a tide in the affairs of men, Which taken at the flood, leads on to
fortune.
Omitted, all the voyage of their life is bound in shallows and in miseries.
On such a full sea are we now afloat.
And we must take the current when it serves, or lose our ventures.
—WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE, Julius Caesar, Act 4, Scene 3
No maze all is surprised True deal —XIANG LI
www.crack99.com
Contents
Introduction
1 PERFECT SURE
2 FAST FOOD
3 DISCORDANT NOTE
4 HACKER, CRACKER, SATELLITE TRACKER
5 THAT GIANT SUCKING SOUND
6 THE LAST WAR
7 THE NEXT WAR
8 ONWARD THROUGH THE FOG
9 PLEASANT SURPRISES
10 UNPLEASANT SURPRISES
11 DEAD OR ALIVE
12 THE AMERICANS
13 SLAYING THE DRAGON
Acknowledgments
Notes
Introduction
THE DAY AFTER TOMORROW.
The Chinese BZK-005 drone executes a slow leftward turn during its routine
patrol of the airspace above a string of uninhabited islands in the East China Sea,
northeast of Taiwan. The Chinese call them the Diaoyu Islands. The Japanese do
not; they call them the Senkaku Islands, illustrating an important point: when it
comes to this territory, the Chinese and the Japanese don’t agree on anything.
Each country claims ownership, and asserts exclusive sovereignty, no doubt
because of the islands’ rumored oil and gas reserves, which have yet to be
exploited.
The BZK-005 is a long-range unmanned aerial vehicle used in multiple
mission sets, including surveillance. When the data link from the BZK-005 to
the People’s Liberation Army base on the Chinese mainland fails, no one gets
excited; this has happened before, and it will be corrected shortly. This time,
however, things are different. Although a squad of technicians swarms into the
control room, no one can identify a problem with the data link. It has simply
ceased to exist. There is a reason for this: the BZK-005 has ceased to exist. This
is what happens when a Chinese BZK-005 is hit by a Sidewinder from a
Japanese F-15 fighter.
People’s Liberation Army Air Force J-16 fighters launch in response and
quickly engage with the Japanese F-15s. If there were a way to watch this from a
safe distance, it would look something like an air show—only deadly. The
dogfighting is intense, littering the East China Sea with burning aircraft and
burning airmen. It lasts as long as the fuel does, ending in a draw.
The USS George Washington, CVN 73, and her battle group are on patrol in
the Philippine Sea. The carrier receives a flash message directing her northwest
toward the disputed island chain. Two F-18 Hornets launch as aviators fill the
ready room. Awaiting the intel brief, they mill about speculating on the situation
and spreading the latest scuttlebutt. The room smells of burnt coffee and aviation
fuel. The Chinese government issues a stern warning to the United States: stay
out of it, or suffer the consequences. The threat is ignored, and the George
Washington continues steaming northwest. Chinese J-16 fighters intercept her
and are escorted out of the operating area by U.S. Navy F-18s. All is well until a
salvo of Chinese antisatellite missiles is launched against the U.S. Navy’s Fleet
Satellite Communications System, isolating the George Washington.
“WAR!” scream the headlines.
This would be a bad day by any measure. But it would be particularly galling
to learn that the technology employed by the Chinese during this bad day—from
the drones to the antisatellite missiles to the fighter radar—was produced in the
United States, that the ability of the Chinese to neutralize the U.S. Navy was
enabled by the crown jewels of U.S. enterprise stolen by Chinese cybercriminals.
The United States is the victim of the greatest transfer of wealth in history.
Digital thieves overseas—particularly in China—are systematically stealing U.S.
intellectual property, largely without adverse consequences. The value of the
information and technology being stolen each year is staggering: hundreds of
billions of dollars.
Xiang Li was part of this Chinese cybercrime collective and the most prolific
Chinese cyber pirate ever caught. From his bastion in Chengdu, China, he
operated CRACK99, a website that from 2008 until the time of his arrest in 2011
sold powerful advanced industrial-grade software, the access controls to which
had been circumvented—or cracked. The stolen software was worth more than
$100 million and covered a lot of technological ground: aerospace and aviation
simulation and design, communications systems design, electromagnetic
simulation, explosive simulation, intelligence analysis, precision tooling, oil
field management, and manufacturing plant design.
Cyber pirates like Xiang Li complement the Chinese government’s national
strategy to steal U.S. technology. One of the thousands of software titles for sale
on CRACK99 was Satellite Tool Kit (STK) 8.0, designed by Analytical
Graphics Incorporated to enable the U.S. military and aerospace industry to
simulate missile launches and flight trajectories—and to track objects in flight,
such as missiles, aircraft (manned and unmanned), and satellites. Moreover,
Chinese hackers have reportedly stolen radar software for the $1.4 trillion F-35
stealth joint strike fighter, a fifth-generation tactical fighter still in the testing
phase, employing the most advanced U.S. stealth technology. These thefts call
into question the ability of the F-35 to remain stealthy in a future conflict with
China. Chinese hackers have also reportedly stolen software relating to other
military platforms, such as the Global Hawk high-resolution surveillance drone,
the UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter, and missile defense systems, including
Patriot, Aegis, and Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD). Some of
these digital crimes are sponsored directly by the Chinese government; others—
like Xiang Li’s—are motivated by money. Either way, the Chinese are stealing
U.S. technology to their strategic advantage, shifting the balance of power away
from the United States.
from the United States.
The potential consequences are epic. So what is the U.S. government doing
about it?
CRACK99