Today The Los Angeles Times ran an article about China shutting down a hacking academy.Called Black Hawk Safety Net, their advertisement read:

Just a little training and you too could hack websites, earning thrills, power and, in many cases, money. "Guaranteed successful attack tools!"

Police in Hubei province announced to the Chinese media over the weekend that they had closed down the operation, which state media said was the largest training site for Chinese hackers, and arrested three of its ringleaders. Black Hawk is accused of collecting more than $1 million in tuition from 12,000 subscribers and 170,000 others who took its online courses, according to Chinese media.

With all the global scrutiny on China regarding IP theft - Ford, DuPont, CyberSitter, etc and attacks against government organizations and critical infrastructure, as well as recent events at Google, and pressure from the US Secretary of State, is this just a PR exercise?  Or, is China getting serious about mitigating cyber crime? If it is real, it seems like a small victory in a long and growing line of incidents.

Although Black Hawk's original website was taken down, it appears that a new one has been set up under a different address. And memberssay they don't believe the bust will make a dent in China's hacking culture.

China wouldn't be the first to try and create a false sense of security.