MCLC: cyber-attack cripples Boxun

Mon Apr 23 09:18:13 EDT 2012

MCLC LIST
From: anne henochowicz (annemh at alumni.upenn.edu)
Subject: cyber-attack cripples Boxun
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Source: The Guardian (4/20/12):
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2012/apr/20/cyber-attack-boxun-com-bo-
xilai

Cyber-attack cripples US website covering Bo Xilai scandalChina's security
services ordered attack, claims manager of Boxun.com, which has seen
visitor traffic rise 155% this year
By Associated Press in Beijing

A cyber-attack has crippled a US-based website that has reported
extensively on China's biggest political turmoil in years.
Boxun.com was forced to move to a another hosting service on Friday after
its previous host said the attacks were threatening its entire business,
said the website's manager, Watson Meng. He added that he believed the
attacks were ordered by China's security services, but that it was unclear
where they were launched from.

The assaults on Boxun's server followed days of reporting on Bo Xilai,
formerly one of China's most powerful politicians, who was sacked as head
of the Chongqing municipality and suspended from the party's politburo
amid accusations that his wife was involved in the death of British
businessman Neil Heywood.

The scandal has deeply embarrassed party leaders. Six years ago, when
Shanghai powerful party chief Chen Liangyu was sacked
<http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2006/sep/25/china.jonathanwatts> in a
corruption purge, Chinese social media was in its infancy and months went
by with no word on the case against him.

The Bo scandal began to emerge in February when his former right-hand man
and Chongqing police chief, Wang Lijun, visited the US consulate in a
neighbouring city in an apparent attempt to seek asylum. Rumour abound on
the internet of a spat with Bo, but neither the Chinese nor the US
authorities revealed any details of the visit.

At the time, Bo admitted to not properly managing his staff, but it
appeared he would keep his job and remain a candidate for the party's
standing committee when a new generation of leaders is picked later this
year.

But then suggestions began surfacing online that Wang was spreading the
word about the alleged involvement of Bo's wife, Gu Kailai, in the death
of Heywood, a business consultant with close ties to the Chongqing party
chief's family. Those suspicions first appeared in a brief posting in
early March by a reporter from the Southern Weekend newspaper group, who
said he had received the information via a text message on 15 February
from a number used only by Wang.

That happened after Chinese authorities took the police chief into custody
on 7 February, so it was not known who sent the message. However, it was
widely circulated online, and the foreign media flocked to Chongqing to
investigate, making it had for the government to ignore the case.

A few weeks later, on 15 March, Bo was sacked, and on 10 April the
authorities announced he was under investigation and that his wife and a
household aide were suspects in the Heywood murder.

Boxun, which has reported on the scandal since early February, was brought
down for several hours on Friday in a denial of service attack in which
hackers deluge a website to paralyse it.

"We publish articles critical of the Chinese government so we're accused
of having ulterior motives," Meng said. "But in the west, most media is
critical of its government, so why can't we be?"

Foreign governments and companies often complain of cyber-attacks from
China, although proving their origins and who the culprits are is rarely
possible. Beijing denies that it uses hackers to attack web sites or steal
secrets online.

Meng set up Boxun in 2000 to promote the pro-democracy movement, human
rights, and expose corruption. Much of its material is submitted by
readers. It has been the target of cyber-attacks before and has gone
without advertising since 2005. The US government-funded National
Endowment for Democracy provided funding for several years, but Meng says
it is now wholly independent.

Not all of Boxun's reports have held water, but many of those alleging
Gu's involvement in the Heywood death and Bo's falling-out with Wang have
since been proven true or been corroborated by other sources.

Traffic to the site has increased 155% over the past three months,
according to internet monitoring firm Alexa, with the second largest chunk
of visitors coming from China, despite government blocks.

China heavily censors the internet and blocks Twitter, Facebook, YouTube
and scores of other overseas sites. Government monitors swiftly remove
sensitive postings and have tried to rein in the Chinese microblogging
site Weibo by requiring proof of identification for new accounts and
sometimes disabling sections where comments can be posted.

Still, the sites have a profound effect. Witness reports on a horrific
train collision last year prompted disgust at officials' callousness and a
sweeping safety review.

One reason why the crackdown has not been harder is because elements
within the establishment also use it to attack rivals, spread
misinformation or advance their own agendas, said Xiao Qiang, director of
the China Internet Project at the University of California, Berkeley.

But they cannot completely control the online discussions or filter out
all unwanted revelations, Xiao said. "Those facts and opinions generate
pressure or create the conditions for the government to take actions such
as firing Bo Xilai."