Telegram Hit by DDoS Attack, Founder Blames China for the Cyber-Attack

0
Telegram

Secure messaging service Telegram faced a powerful distributed denial of service(DDoS) attack that appeared to have come from China. Pavel Durov, Telegram CEO shared that the ‘state-actor sized’ attack was traced to China as IP addresses show.

Hong Kong which has special administrative powers separate from mainland China and thus Hong Kong residents are not under China’s Great Firewall which greatly restricts internet access but many fear that the island is being exerted influence from Beijing.

The residents are protesting a new law that will put them under China’s authoritarian government.

Many fear that the proposed a law that would allow extradition to China and thus the island’s residents would be exposed to the mainland’s flawed justice system.

Close to over 1 million people out of the 7 million Hong Kong residents thronged the streets in protests descending into violence yesterday as law enforcement used rubber bullets and tear gas to disperse the crowds who had tried to get to to the city’s parliament. Hong Kong has never experienced political demonstrations this big since they git handed over from Britain in 1997.

The protesters used encrypted messaging services like Telegram which is blocked in mainland China to organize the riots by sharing tactics and delivery of resources such as cling film, masks, headgear, and water as they avoid surveillance by the government.

“We’re all using these apps to keep in touch with each other and try to figure out what’s going on.”

~ Lokman Tsui, Chinese University of Hong Kong

China has been attacking Telegram and tried to take it down a couple of years ago when the country went after human right lawyers who used the app.

Users reported difficulty using the messaging service for a couple of hours during the demonstrations on Wednesday.

Telegram service has now returned to normal.

Privacy Apps You Should Download Right Now