Beijing blames hackers for recent Internet issues

China has blamed overseas hackers for a bizarre recent incident in which Chinese Internet users visiting foreign pages with a “Login with Facebook” button were redirected to random sites.

Chinese officials claimed Friday it was part of a broader hacking scheme targeting telecommunications carriers’ servers, Reuters reported.

{mosads}For several days this week, researchers were flummoxed by the inexplicable cyberattack.

Massive numbers of Web browsers were being rerouted in a organized manner, normally known as a denial-of-service (DDOS) attack. But the traffic was flooding two unimportant websites — wpgk.org, an open-source software deployment site, and ptraverler.com, a Polish couple’s travel blog.

Many noted similarities to an allegedly Beijing-backed cyberattack weapon known as the “Great Cannon.” The robust tool allows state-sponsored digital warriors to intercept and reroute global Internet traffic toward websites it wants censored.

But the attack this week had no clear motive.

A Chinese agency monitoring Internet safety said the traffic diversion happened because of malware planted on several telecom servers throughout China.

“It was a rather strange case because the hackers were directly targeting the telecom carriers’ servers,” an unnamed Chinese official told the English-language newspaper China Daily. “It has rarely happened before.”

Censorship watchdogs have noted a dramatic uptick over the past year in Chinese efforts to control domestic information.

Beijing’s efforts to manage digital information at home are starting to have an impact abroad.

Censorship tools like “Great Cannon” are increasingly impeding global Internet flow.

And pending cybersecurity rules that would require many foreign companies operating in China to use Beijing-approved encryption have drawn a strong rebuke from the international community, including President Obama.