Cooking, computers and hacking: School accused of global scam
Depending on your perspective, Lanxiang vocational school in Jinan in eastern China is either the heart of a secretive global hacking conspiracy or a second-rate educational factory that is best known for churning out hairdressers and cooks.
Founded in 1984, the school takes in 20,000 students a year and has a domestic reputation for its kitchen and boutique training. But it also has a large computer studies class. The school's catalogue boasts 10 huge, high-standard laboratories equipped with 2000 Founder brand PCs. At one point Lanxiang said it held a Guinness world record for the room with the most computers.
The school gained notoriety in 2010 when the New York Times named it as one of two schools suspected of involvement in hacking attacks on American companies and human rights activists. The report, which cited anonymous sources close to the investigation, suggested the strikes were linked to a specific class taught at Lanxiang by a Ukrainian professor. It traced the attacks to the IP address of one of the school's computers.
