The websites of Chinese Human Rights Defenders (CHRD), Independent Chinese Pen
(ICPC), New Century News, Canyu and Civil Rights and Livelihood Watch (CRLW)
were attacked by hackers of unknown origin between 23 and 24 January.
(Source: Chinese Human Rights Defenders, 25 January 2010)
The websites of Chinese Human Rights Defenders (CHRD), Independent Chinese Pen
(ICPC), New Century News, Canyu and Civil Rights and Livelihood Watch (CRLW)
were attacked by hackers of unknown origin between January 23 and 24.
The attacks on CHRD's website started at around 4pm on January 23 and ended at
8am the following day. A DDOS (distributed denial of service) attack paralyzed
CHRD's website by consuming its server's resources, so that the server cannot
respond to instructions from computers of legitimate users, making it
impossible for these users to visit the website. According to CHRD's internet
service provider, the frequency of the attack was at 2GB per second at the
height of the incident, the most intense attack the ISP has ever experienced.
Because the hackers used fake IP addresses in the attack, CHRD is still unable
to locate its source.
CHRD and CRLW are human rights organizations based in China, ICPC is a writers'
association while New Century News and Canyu are news websites. These websites
are all run by Chinese activists.
"You need to spend a lot of time to prepare for this kind of attack and
you need to get a hold of a large number of computers prior to it. I don't
think ordinary Chinese hackers have this kind of capability. The Chinese
government is the most likely suspect for these attacks," said an IT
expert associated with CHRD.
Prior to the DDOS attack, malwares were installed on the websites of CHRD and
New Century News, which are currently being removed by their website
technicians. CHRD's website has frequently been targeted for cyber attacks,
making it inaccessible for days, especially during "sensitive"
periods in China.
On January 22, 2010, a spokesperson for the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs
stated that Chinese laws prohibit hacking and the infringement of the privacy
of its citizens. CHRD calls on the Chinese government to investigate the
allegation that the targeted cyber attacks on CHRD and the other four websites
might have originated in China.
