The Chief Executive of popular encrypted messaging app Telegram, said on Wednesday the messaging service experienced a “state actor-sized” cyber attack and pointed to China as its likely country of origin.
Pavel Durov, Telegram’s CEO, tweeted that the service was hit by a “powerful DDoS attack” originating from IP addresses mostly inside China.
“The attack coincided with protests in Hong Kong,” he added. The Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks involve sending large numbers of requests in a targeted attack, causing partial or full service interruptions.
Hundreds of thousands of protesters marched in Hong Kong this week in opposition to a controversial law that would allow people in the city to be extradited to China. Chinese State media have sharply condemned the protests, which they say is motivated by outside forces and undermines social stability in Hong Kong. The Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC), which oversees the country’s cyber policy, did not respond immediately to a faxed request for comment.
Meanwhile, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said that he was not aware of the situation, when asked about Durov’s accusation, during a daily briefing on Thursday.
Telegram and other encrypted messaging apps are popular tools for protesters globally, who use them to co-ordinate without tipping off authorities. Durov added that historical attacks of the same size had coincided with protests in Hong Kong, adding, “This case was not an exception.”
Other apps have also faced blocks in China during political movements in Hong Kong. In 2014, at the height of the city’s Umbrella Movement, Beijing cut access to photo-sharing app Instagram inside the mainland.
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