C. Custer writes that the recent release of so many old (and large!) Chinese databases might be politically motivated as a challenge to China’s real-name registration policy:
The data released on the internet last week was already widely available in hacking circles, according to Wan Tao, the founder of a popular hacking online community. Wan told theDongfang Daily that the reason the data looks so old (most of the information released involves pre-2009 usernames and passwords) is that it is old. Apparently, the databases have been floating around in hacker circles for some time, and hackers told the paper that whoever released the data must have done it for fun, as there is no way anyone could make money from such an old, widely-circulated database.
Fun, or to make a point about the increasing focus on real-name registration systems, which China’s biggest microblogs have already put into place. Wan told the Dongfang Daily that the release of the data could potentially be understood as a challenge to the emphasis on real-name registration systems; a (relatively) victimless way of demonstrating that storing people’s real identities on web servers might have unintended consequences. “Excessively emphasizing real-name registration has risks,” said Wan, “and at present, risk assessment has not been sufficient.”
Read more on Penn-Olson.com.
Although it’s purely speculative, it would make sense as a motive, as we saw South Korea walk back from its real-name registration policy after some very huge hacks there this year.