FBI in Alaska just thanked Qihoo 360 for helping combat cyber crime

FBI Anchorage in Alaska just showed its appreciation on Twitter to Qihoo 360, the leading Chinese cybersecurity company providing anti-virus solutions, for its role in cracking three local cyber crime cases involving significant DDOS attacks.

Defendants in the cases have pleaded guilty to be responsible for creating “Mirai” and clickfraud botnets, infecting hundreds of thousands of IoT devices with malicious software, according to the press release on the website of US Department of Justice.

It’s unclear how the Chinese cybersecurity firm helped out in the case, but local FBI has tweeted out an appreciation note, saying that “#FBIAnchorage would like to thank our business partners in this case: 360.CN, AT&T, Dyn, Paterva, Paypal and ShadowServer.”

Meanwhile in China, Qihoo 360 is mired in an invasion of privacy controversy. A Chinese post-90 girl wrote a furious letter addressing Zhou Hongyi, CEO and chairman of Qihoo 360, accusing the firm of privacy invasion. She pointed out that Qihoo’s live streaming service Shuidi Zhibo (水滴直播) had been live broadcasting with what should be used as surveillance cameras from public spaces like gyms, restaurants, and internet cafes, while the customers were not aware of the fact that they could be watched online.

Zhou earlier this week said in a press conference that this was some malicious attack as “it requires some complex setup to enable the live streaming feature with these cameras.” He also emphasized that it’s impossible for the company to remotely turn on the live streaming feature.