China hit by ‘Largest ever’ hack attack – (August 26, 2013): Large parts of China’s Internet went dark this past weekend as the country came under what the Beijing government is calling the “largest ever” hack attack on Chinese sites.
According to The China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC), which “operates and administers country code top level domain of .cn and Chinese domain name system,” the denial of service, or DDoS, attacks started at 2:00 a.m. local time Sunday morning. CNNIC said the initial attack was followed two hours later by a larger attack. Both focused on websites with the .cn extension.
Christopher Burgess, CEO of Prevendra, Inc., says the attack could have also have come from within China.
“The prompt response and resolution by China’s CNNIC and lack of attribution provided by the CNNIC of attack origin warrants further monitoring. It begs the question, was this a self-inflicted wound by a Chinese entity, such as one of those identified by Mandiant in their report earlier in 2013 or an attack originating by a criminal element,” he said.
To read the complete VOA News piece: China Hit by ‘Largest ever’ hack attack
The VOA piece was syndicated in both Farsi and Spanish:
Farsi: بزرگترین حمله سایبری تاریخ به شبکه اینترنتی چی http://ir.voanews.com/content/china-internethack-webdisruption/1737883.html
Spanish: China denuncia fuerte ataque de hackers http://www.voanoticias.com/content/china_hacker_ataque_cibernetico_pirata/1737419.html
Interestingly, the VOA piece was used as a source document by a number of other news outlets. These included, China’s official news service Xian Hua. Who only chose to pick up the ultimate phrase of the VOA quote, “…an attack originating from a (domestic) criminal element.“
China: Xin Hua: “.CN”遭大規模攻擊 或是有組織網絡攻擊行為 http://big5.xinhuanet.com/gate/big5/news.xinhuanet.com/world/2013-08/28/c_117119453.htm
Syndicated: cnyes.com, 163.com, huanqui.com
The Malaysian news site, Fajar, picked up the VOA piece and rewrote it, using the entire quote in Malay: Hacker Lumpuhkan Jaringan Internet China http://www.fajar.co.id/teknologiotomotif/2910079_5674.html