China fell prey to one of the largest hacker attacks ever
yesterday. Every domain name system (DNS) servers operating under
Xinnet, a leading hosting service provider, was hacked, shutting
down tens of thousands of websites.
At around 4: 30 PM, netizens were unable to access numerous
popular website, including Skycn.com, China's biggest software
download site and China's famed webmaster community, im286.com.
An employee confirmed the attack and told China.org.cn in a
telephone interview that they have been recovering the servers and
data for hours since the breakdown. Thus far, most webs have
recovered.
"This is huge. All servers were down, which have affected more
than 100,000 websites," he sighed, confirming police have been
notified. No possible hacker has been named, but an investigation
is under way.
Founded in 1993, Xinnet offers a broad range of Internet
services, including domain name registry, hosting and e-mail
services, website design and advertising as well as research and
development of other web-based products.
As China's biggest domain name registry agency, Xinnet oversees
600,000 registered domain names and controls 20 percent of market
share in China's Internet service industry.
Ironically, yesterday saw the opening of the 2006 China Internet
Conference in Beijing, hosted by the Internet Society of China, and
where web security will be one of the main topics of
discussion.
Jiang Yaoping, vice minister of information industry, said at
the conference that China is stepping up efforts in supervising the
Internet. A series of rules and regulations have been worked out,
including the Internet Safety Emergency Plan.
(China.org.cn by Zhang Rui, September 22, 2006)