Hacked Personal Data Widely Available in China

Data Pirates: A thriving marketplace for personal data provides a powerful incentive to China's hackers.

The personal data of 10 million China Mobile subscribers was just one batch of hacked data available for sale by a group recently arrested by Beijing police. The subscribers were sorted in descending order by the size of their phone bills.

A batch of data containing information on about ten thousand to several hundred thousand names was being sold for between 100 and 200 yuan ($15.80-$31.60). And about 1,365 sellers of such information was counted on QQ.com, according to a Beijing prosecutor’s office.

Not all sellers are hackers. Many are merely resellers of data obtained by others.

Data for sale include those who have bought stocks, used home-shopping networks, bought golf club memberships, or those who are senior bank officials or high-end mobile-phone users.

Prosecutors are also going after those who buy hacked data. Two businessmen were recently arrested for buying personal data from online vendors. One planned to use it to telemarket postage stamps and commemoration coins. The other was selling counterfeit goods to customers of a home-shopping service selling cosmetics. Both had reaped large profits before being arrested.

Consumer rights advocates have called on China to enact tougher laws against those seeking to steal and exploit personal data.