Q: When did you start hacking?
A: Although I studied accounting at university, I became so fascinated about computer programming in my third year that I skipped most of my classes and spent a lot of time at the computer centre, living on two apples and a glass of water a day.
I was initially interested in hacking because I knew I could easily be better than any of the computer-science students. In my fourth year, I came up with my first virus, which soon paralysed the whole computer centre. There was no internet at the time, so it was spread via floppy disks. A teacher who did not know I'd invented the virus asked me to help get rid of it, so I was able to do it quite easily.
What did you do for a living after you graduated?
I was sent to the state-owned Guangdong Railway Group, because there was no free job market for university graduates in 1993. But instead of doing their accounting, I developed financial software for the company, which they've been using ever since.
With nothing else to do, I soon became bored, but then found a job as an auditor in Guangzhou. I stayed there for two years, until 1996, when the boredom returned and then I quit. From then I was totally involved in IT [information technology], from working as a freelance programmer to being an internet security consultant, while brushing up on my hacking skills on the side. But I have my own principles and ethics, such as never bringing my hacking to work.
There have been long-standing disputes between hackers and 'honkers' in China. Whom have you sided with?
