Chinese
authorities have taken over computers both inside and outside the
country to launch cyberattacks against the website of an anti-online
censorship group and a U.S.-based web resource that hosts some of the
group’s data, according to an analysis released by the group.
Greatfire.org
said in a statement that Chinese authorities carried out
denial-of-service attacks that have intermittently shut down San
Francisco-based Github over the past week. Greatfire.org said it had
mirrored some of its content on Github repositories, and that the data
were the targets of the attacks.
Greatfire.org
said Chinese authorities carried out the attacks by installing
malicious code on the computers of users visiting the popular Chinese
search engine Baidu and related sites and using those computers to
overwhelm Github and Greatfire.org websites with service requests.
The
group said the attacks marked the first of their kind blamed on Chinese
authorities and represented a dangerous escalation for a country that
already tightly restricts what Chinese can see online. Greatfire.org
said it was a direct target of similar denial-of-service attacks earlier
in March.
Greatfire.org
produces mirror websites that let Chinese users see information
normally blocked by government censors. The group doesn’t reveal where
it’s located or who runs it. The Open Technology Fund, a U.S.
government-backed initiative to support Internet freedom, says on its
website that it provided Greatfire.org with $114,000 in 2014.
The Cyberspace Administration of China didn’t respond to requests for comment Tuesday.
“Very
clearly, the Cyberspace Administration of China is behind both of the
recent (distributed denial-of-service) attacks,” Greatfire.org said in
its statement. “Hijacking the computers of millions of innocent internet
users around the world is particularly striking as it illustrates the
utter disregard the Chinese authorities have for international as well
as even Chinese internet governance norms.”
Posted by : Gizmeon
No comments:
Post a Comment