‘Before Vegas: The “Red Hackers” Who Shaped China’s Cyber Ecosystem’ traces how a core cohort of patriotic red hackers from the 1990s and 2000s laid the foundation of China’s modern cyber capabilities and became the backbone of the state's espionage apparatus.
Recent revelations of 
government-backed hacking show a recurring pattern: prominent hackers behind groups such as APT17, APT27, APT41, Flax Typhoon, and Red Hotel — monikers given by cybersecurity researchers for groups with similar tactics — trace their roots to a broader community of early elite hackers, known as “red hackers” or “Honkers” (红客, Hong Ke). Active in online forums during the mid-1990s and 2000s, these hackers operated independently but often aligned with state interests, targeting foreign entities perceived as hostile to China, including the US, Taiwan, and Japan.
wired.com/story/china-ho
research-collection.ethz.ch/bitstream/hand
government-backed hacking show a recurring pattern: prominent hackers behind groups such as APT17, APT27, APT41, Flax Typhoon, and Red Hotel — monikers given by cybersecurity researchers for groups with similar tactics — trace their roots to a broader community of early elite hackers, known as “red hackers” or “Honkers” (红客, Hong Ke). Active in online forums during the mid-1990s and 2000s, these hackers operated independently but often aligned with state interests, targeting foreign entities perceived as hostile to China, including the US, Taiwan, and Japan.
wired.com/story/china-ho
research-collection.ethz.ch/bitstream/hand
