Telegram Blames China For DDoS Attack Coinciding With Hong Kong Protests (cnet.com) 49
The distributed denial of service attack that hit Telegram Wednesday came from China, the secure messaging app's founder said. Pavel Durov's tweet suggested that the country's government may have done it to disrupt protests in Hong Kong. From a report: In a DDoS attack, an online service gets bombarded with traffic from networks of bots, to the point where it's overwhelmed and legit users get frozen out. In an explanation Wednesday, Telegram compared it to an "army of lemmings" jumping the line at a McDonald's and making innumerable "garbage requests." Durov said, "IP addresses coming mostly from China. Historically, all state actor-sized DDoS (200-400 Gb/s of junk) we experienced coincided in time with protests in Hong Kong (coordinated on Telegram). This case was not an exception." Tens of thousands took to Hong Kong's streets to oppose a government plan that'd allow extraditions to mainland China. People are worried that it would bring the semiautonomous former British colony under the Chinese government's thumb. These protesters relied on encrypted messaging services, which let them mask their identities from Chinese authorities, to communicate.
McDonald's? (Score:5, Funny)
All requests at McDonald's are garbage requests.
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I think China is smart enough to hack something more influential than Telegram
Chinese troll detected.
If China was smart enough to hack telegram instead of exposing themselves through DDoS attacks, they would have.
No, the People's Terrorist Army of China was unable to hack the Telegram.
Get ready Hong Kong (Score:4, Insightful)
The Chinese dictatorship is creeping forward bit by bit and it won't stop. Protests are useless and at best will only slow down the process a bit. After the extradition changes are finalized it will only mean that the paperwork will be streamlined and an air of legitimacy provided to the inevitable middle of the night disappearances of troublemakers. If I were granted a wish it would be for people to understand how precious freedom is.
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If you shoot me with tear gas, you're lucky if I don't tear you apart. The protesters showed more restraint than the assholes deserved.
Re:Riots, not "protest" (Score:5, Insightful)
If you shoot me with tear gas, you're lucky if I don't tear you apart.
Brave words from someone who's not facing the Chinese Army, the group behind the Tiananmen Square massacre. No doubt if the tear gas hadn't been effective they'd have moved on to "more persuasive methods" like live ammo and tanks.
Point is, you wouldn't get the chance to tear anyone apart. You'd be beaten, arrested, and "disappeared"...assuming you weren't just shot on the spot.
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And that's the difference between protesting and rioting. You protest by going on the street and voice your concerns. You riot by using a sniper rifle from a distance, preferably quietly.
Whoosh! (Score:3)
You totally missed the point of your parent's post.
The parent post was responding to a post that was accusing protesters of being rioters (Original post probably being written by someone in the Chinese govt). Your parent's post was saying that these people were justified in their actions because of government actions. His point is that if *you* treated him as the government treated the protesters, he would be justified in treating *you* poorly. His point was NOT what he would do against government offic
Better hope you have no family too... (Score:1)
If you're a serious enough threat and hard to touch directly, they won't go after you. They will go after your family in the mainland, no matter how extended. Then they'll tell you how it'd be a shame if something happened to them, or if they confessed to those (real or false) charges they are being brought up on.
China has a velvet gloved iron fist when it comes to handling dissent. They may pull the gauntlet out for special occasions, but most of the time you won't understand their actions until it is too
Who is facing the Chinese Army? (Score:1)
Brave words from someone who's not facing the Chinese Army, the group behind the Tiananmen Square massacre.
Stupid words from someone who can't tell the difference between the Chinese Army and the Hong Kong Police.
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Do you want to take on a small army of better-equipped, better-trained police officers, O Great Hero of the Internet?
And if you when, what then? You just escalated your riot to the point the government can justify sending in the military, and when the Chinese military are 'keeping the peace' they use live ammo.
China is DDoS central (Score:1)
Over 90% of DDoS attacks originate [nsfocusglobal.com] in China. So blaming them is a no brainer.
Sadly an arrest was made... (Score:3, Interesting)
Source: https://www.taiwannews.com.tw/en/news/3723417
The student admin for a Telegram app group linked to the Hong Kong extradition bill protesters was arrested by police on “public nuisance” charges.
As administrator of the group, he collated various news and information on the web and shared them with the group, which had about 30000 members. HK Police arrested him at his home, then demanded he unlock his mobile phone and export to their computer all his Telegram data, including member list and chat records.
And in latest news, the HK police have also been searching university hostels and campuses, looking for "suspicious items" that will result in arrests in relation to the protests.
The extradition bill has not been passed yet, but it is clear that police power and brutality are now increasingly unchecked in HK.
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The extradition bill has not been passed yet, but it is clear that police power and brutality are now increasingly unchecked in HK.
China was "disappearing" authors, and newspaper reporters from Hong Kong ~10 years ago that were critical of the Chinese government. All this bill does is remove the veil and let them do so with impunity and under a legal framework.
It's the type of situation where western countries should be allowing people to GTFO and claim refugee status. As it stands, there's no active policy going on at the moment. Only on a per-individual basis. My guess, is it has more to do with how many businesses and whatnot op
More than 10's thousands (Score:5, Insightful)
The summary downplays the sheer number of people who came out to protest. The Chinese police estimated 240,000 so I think you have to take that as the absolute basement estimate. Others pegged it closer to 1 million (out of 7 million people in HK).
In short this law allows for immediate extradition to China. Are you in HK and say something the CCP really doesn't like, whoosh, you are in Bejing before you know it. Which is basically the end of Hong Kong's semi-autonomous status.
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In short this law allows for immediate extradition to China. Are you in HK and say something the CCP really doesn't like, whoosh, you are in Bejing before you know it. Which is basically the end of Hong Kong's semi-autonomous status.
And you never know what is that "something" the CCP really doesn't like. Just last year, a novelist is sentenced for 10 years [scmp.com] for publishing gay novel just because it contains explicit gay sex scene, nothing against the government and nothing political.
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Widely exaggerated.
The law states that to extradite someone you need both permission from the Hong Kong executive and Hong Kong court approval.
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Overrated? But it is trued and on topic.
It also provides information NOT in the flamebait article.