UglyGorilla Hacker Left Tracks, U.S. Cyber-Hunters Say

Prosecutors building a case against Wang Dong, one of five Chinese military hackers indicted this week for economic espionage, were helped by Wang’s apparent willingness to break a cardinal rule of spying: Leave no tracks.

Known as UglyGorilla, Wang is a pun-making hacker who left a string of clues dating back years, according to several security professionals who have pursued him. He became famous in counterintelligence circles as China’s most flamboyant hacker, as he seeded malicious code with his handle and left the initials “UG” in the logs of thousands of compromised computers.