Telegram founder claims China hacked the app to disrupt Hong Kong protesters
|- Pavel Durov hinted that Chinese authorities are behind the violent DDoS attacks.
- Users from other regions are also affected.
The founder of a popular messaging app Pavel Durov says that Chinese authorities hacked the app to clamp down on Hong Kong protesters.
The protesters used the messenger to share the information, coordinate activities and alert each other on important developments. However, recently, the service went down due to a powerful DDoS attack that was traced back to the IP address in mainland China.
"IP addresses coming mostly from China. Historically, all state actor-sized DDoS (200-400 Gb/s of junk) we experienced coincided in time with protests in Hong Kong (coordinated on @telegram). This case was not an exception," Durov commented on Twitter.
Meanwhile, it seems that Hong Kong protesters are not the only one who fell victim to the DDoS attack. The company reported that users in both the Americas and some other regions were also experiencing issues.
"We're currently experiencing a powerful DDoS attack, Telegram users in the Americas and some users from other countries may experience connection issues," they wrote in the official Twitter account.
A DDoS or Distributed Denial of Service attack is a common tactic of cybercriminals aimed at making a machine or network resource unavailable to its intended users by sending billions of garbage requests. As a result, the server gets overloaded and stops processing legitimate requests.
Information on these pages contains forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. Markets and instruments profiled on this page are for informational purposes only and should not in any way come across as a recommendation to buy or sell in these assets. You should do your own thorough research before making any investment decisions. FXStreet does not in any way guarantee that this information is free from mistakes, errors, or material misstatements. It also does not guarantee that this information is of a timely nature. Investing in Open Markets involves a great deal of risk, including the loss of all or a portion of your investment, as well as emotional distress. All risks, losses and costs associated with investing, including total loss of principal, are your responsibility. The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of FXStreet nor its advertisers.