Telegram Traces Massive Cyber Attack to China During Hong Kong Protests

Telegram founder Pavel Durov said a massive cyber-attack on his messaging service originated in China, according to Bloomberg. That is raising questions about whether Beijing tried to disrupt a protest on the streets of Hong Kong.

The encrypted messaging app said it experienced a powerful distributed denial of service attack after “garbage requests“ flooded its servers and disrupted legitimate communications. Most of those queries came from Chinese internet protocol addresses, founder Pavel Durov said in a subsequent Twitter post. “This case was not an exception,“ he tweeted without elaborating.

Hong Kong is in the throes of political unrest as the Beijing-backed government attempts to force through controversial legislation that would for the first time allow extraditions to China, which protesters fear could be used to squelch government opposition. That proposal has ignited a widespread outcry, sending hundreds of thousands of protesters into the city’s streets and triggering violent clashes when demonstrators stormed the legislative chamber.