False Earthquake Warning gets Hacker Arrested

2008-06-16 09:01

A 19 year old Chinese Hacker was arrested on June 4, in the Guangxi province city of Taicang for placing a false earthquake warning that could have caused wide spread panic in China.

Steven Schwankert, IDG News Service, reports "The teenager, identified only by his surname Chen, altered the Web site of the Guangxi Seismological Bureau to warn residents in southwestern China to prepare for an impending earthquake expected to measure 9.0 on the Richter scale."

Although Chinese authorities did not say what impact the false post had, they did worry that it would cause a wide spread panic due to the nature of the post. In 2004, an earthquake measuring 9.0 caused the Asian tsunami which killed around 250,000 people.

The young man confessed to altering the website to 'demonstrate his technical skills'. It is currently unknown what the charges against the hacker will be, if he will go to trial, or what punishment he will face. You can read the full news article here.