Chinese Hackers Pissed Off

[InfoSec News <isn () C4I ORG>]

http://www.thedigest.com/more/125/125-135.html

Source: South China Morning Post
Publication date: 2001-02-21

(The Digest) - Hackers attacked 30 Web sites in China yesterday, a day
after full Internet services were restored following a break in an
undersea cable.

Showing their frustration with a 10-day disruption to services,
hackers broke into the sites and left the message: "This is just a
warning to the telecom departments for your slow restoration of the
cable."

The hackers signed the same name and left the same message on all 30
sites, including those belonging to ISP Beijing Telecom. They also
blocked further access to the sites.

Xinhua yesterday said the cable had been repaired on Monday afternoon
and full Internet access had been restored.

The Japanese ship, KDD Ocean Link, arrived at the site of the break in
the Pacific cable on Friday after a day's sailing from Shanghai.
Technicians replaced the damaged part at the surface. Workers at
landing stations in Shanghai and Oregon in the United States tested
the cable by X-ray.

Mainland Internet access was normal yesterday morning, showing no
obvious slowness in the connection speed.

Over the next few days, the cable will be buried 1.1 metres under the
seabed - its required depth. The work is to be finished tomorrow, a
day earlier than anticipated, said Shanghai Telecom senior engineer
Liu Shaokuan.

The cable is the main telecommunications link connecting Asia and the
United States and carries most mainland Internet traffic to other
countries. The February 9 cable break blocked access to overseas Web
sites and slowed network speed in the Asia-Pacific region.

During the disruption, China Telecom rented international satellites
and used other channels to redirect Net traffic. One third of the
traffic was restored, but most North American Web sites remained
inaccessible.

Despite the recovery, the 10-day break was enough to prompt hackers in
China to vent their anger at Beijing Telecom.

Beijing Telecom is a subsidiary of China Telecom, China's largest
Internet service provider and the main operator of the severed cable.
Millions of users lost connections to instant messages, overseas Web
sites and free e-mail boxes based outside China after the cable was
severed.

According to a report from Chinabyte.com, a joint venture site by
People's Daily and News Corp, the hackers attacked 30 Web sites,
including that of Beijing Mobile Communication Co Ltd, a subsidiary of
China Mobile. So far 10 sites have been restored.

Last week China Telecom said it would refuse to compensate users for
Internet connection losses, saying the service was cut by a force
majeure. State-run media quoted a Shanghai Telecom official saying his
company was responsible only for cable maintenance and it would not
compensate users.

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