The encrypted messaging app Telegram experienced a “powerful” distributed denial-of-service attack (DDoS) on Wednesday, causing interruptions.
Telegram has been one of the primary tools Hong Kong protestors have used to communicate and organise themselves in defiance of a highly-controversial extradition bill, which is behind the country’s worst political crisis in recent memory.
The company said it received “gadzillions of garbage requests” which overwhelmed its servers, and it turns out that most of these originated in China.
Pavel Durov, Telegram’s founder and CEO, revealed details of the attack on Thursday and wasn’t subtle about where it came from, explaining the size of these junk requests was consistent with a state actor, and the timing coincided with protests in Hong Kong. Read more…
More about Tech, China, Encryption, Hong Kong, and Telegram
