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The CEO of messaging service Telegram has suggested that a recent cyber attack on the encrypted chat platform was the work of the Chinese government as part of an attempt to disrupt use of the app to coordinate ongoing protests in Hong Kong.

Telegram founder Pavel Durov said the messaging service experienced a "state actor-sized" distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack yesterday and this morning after "garbage requests" flooded its servers and disrupted communications.

DDoS attacks typically work through the use of botnets - often operating on hijacked computers infected with malware - which bombard servers with redundant requests to prevent them from processing legitimate requests.

We're currently experiencing a powerful DDoS attack, Telegram users in the Americas and some users from other countries may experience connection issues. - Telegram Messenger (@telegram) June 12, 2019

Most of those requests came from IP addresses originating in China and appeared to be coincided in time with protests in Hong Kong, founder Pavel Durov said in a later Twitter post.

Protesters in the hundreds and thousands have been marching through Hong Kong's streets this week in opposition to a controversial law that would allow people in the city to be extradited to China.

Chinese state media have condemned the protests, which they claim is being motivated by outside forces and risks undermining social stability in the region.

This isn't the first time apps have been blocked in Hong Kong. In 2014, China's cyberspace administration cut access to Instagram during the city's Umbrella Movement, which used umbrellas as a tool of passive resistance to the police's use of pepper spray on protestors who were seeking more transparent elections.

Note: Due to the political nature of the discussion regarding this topic, the discussion thread is located in our Politics, Religion, Social Issues forum. All forum members and site visitors are welcome to read and follow the thread, but posting is limited to forum members with at least 100 posts.

Article Link: Telegram Messenger Service Suffers Cyberattack Originating From China
 

thisisnotmyname

macrumors 68020
Oct 22, 2014
2,438
5,248
known but velocity indeterminate
Why is that?

proprietary encryption algorithms I'd guess, Telegram has been criticized for it. Although if China was attempting to take it out that may lead credence to it in fact being unbroken. Also possible they were just more concerned about the momentum that could be reached than monitoring communications at the time.
 

tomnavratil

macrumors 6502a
Oct 2, 2013
876
1,588
Why is that?

https://www.reddit.com/r/privacy/comments/7fq16e/telegram_vs_signal/
[doublepost=1560433130][/doublepost]
Yeah but does Signal still not have an option to hide your phone number? That was always baffling to me, Telegram's system for that works perfectly.

There are a few ways how to handle it. One of them to register Signal on a temporary phone number and swap sim card back to your actual one and do not re-register Signal to the new number. That way you are not giving out your primary number. Not perfect of course.
 
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B4U

macrumors 68040
Oct 11, 2012
3,552
3,966
Undisclosed location
I’m sure the CCP is just looking out for people and trying to prevent another Tiananmen Square Massacre... or should I say incident? ...or vaccine?
That is bull crap.
The communists are the ones who caused the massacre in the first place and they are making the police to use excessive force against the peaceful protesters. They are using their baton to hit the protesters’ heads and they are caught in camera!
[doublepost=1560435225][/doublepost]
Like they have a choice? President Carter and England signed liberrty’s death warrant.
Everyone in the UN got deceived by the communists back in the 70’s!
 

rictus007

macrumors 6502
Oct 12, 2011
423
1,075
I will like something like signal, but with private servers.... like a raspberry pi at home hosting my own private messages. ... within just few people.
 

boccabella

Cancelled
Oct 26, 2010
171
289
The tweet says Telegram service is being affected in the Americas, no mention of Hong Kong. Doesn’t make sense. Also, WhatsApp would surely be targeted in the same fashion if the goal was to disrupt the demonstrators.
 

s54

Suspended
Sep 25, 2012
505
586
That is bull crap.
The communists are the ones who caused the massacre in the first place and they are making the police to use excessive force against the peaceful protesters. They are using their baton to hit the protesters’ heads and they are caught in camera!

Not sure if serious... lol
 

CarpalMac

macrumors 68000
Nov 19, 2012
1,617
3,984
UK
Telegram might not be the most private messenger service, it is however one of the most convenient, feature rich, regularly developing and most importantly, non-Zuckerberked messengers out there. Most of my friends and collegues now use it and all liken it to Betamax vs VHS when comparing to WhatsApp.

A very small number of people keep harping on about privacy and Google yadda-yadda. Until Facebook is pronounced dead, you can be certain that privacy is not yet that important to the majority. Neither can it be for most of us, posting here on a public forum, sharing IP addresses etc...
 
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alphaod

macrumors Core
Feb 9, 2008
22,183
1,245
NYC
IMO, Hong Kong people really need to understand they are not in a separate country; they are only in a special region of China.

It's like protesting a law introduced in Puerto Rico that said allows people to be extradited to the US.
 
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