TAIPEI, TAIWAN - A massive cyber attack on the websites of pro-democracy newspaper Apple Daily originated from a heavy concentration of computers and ISPs located in China, internal and vendor records show.
At its peak, the distributed denial-of-service attack launched on June 18 flooded Apple Daily in Taiwan with more than 10 billion bogus DNS requests in a 24-hour period. Web logs from a separate, direct attack on Apple Daily servers show much of the traffic originated from IP addresses in China, though some traffic came from Russia and the United States.
In a typical DDOS attack, hackers use infected "zombie" computers under their control to launch an assault. IP addresses can be traced back to these zombie computers, although not the originator of the attack.
The cyber attacks came as the people of Hong Kong prepared to launch a referendum on how to negotiate Hong Kong's democratic future with China. Apple Daily and Next Media Group believe that all people should be able to participate in free elections and have openly supported the referendum. The Chinese government has denounced the referendum as illegal.
The Apple Daily website in Hong Kong has returned to 90 percent service levels, while the Apple Daily website in Taiwan remains hampered by the ongoing attacks.
