Chinese hacker groups threaten CNN over Tibet coverage (Updated)

While protesters continue to disrupt the Olympic torch ceremonies in Greece, many of China’s supporters plan to launch their own protests against those who they believe to be misrepresenting the country’s intervention in Tibet. Western media outlets have been a frequent target. Recently, CNN drew the ire of Chinese officials when a commentator referred to China’s leaders as “goons” in reference to China’s crackdown on unrest in the region. Today, The Dark Visitor reports that the Chinese hacker community may join in these protests:

To coincide with the European protests, several Chinese hacker groups are calling for a DDOS attack on the CNN website to begin at 8:00pm on 19 April 2008. While only three websites have openly posted about this attack, my guess is that many more calls are going on behind closed doors.

During a distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack, hackers controlling thousands of compromised computers overwhelm their target with traffic in an attempt to render a computer resource–typically a web site–unavailable to its users. One of the most notable examples is the 2007 Estonian cyberattacks, which arose from a dispute between Russia and Estonia following the removal of Soviet war memorials. Many cite this attack as an example of the growing threat of cyberwarfare.

This is not the first time China’s involvement in Tibet has attracted the attention of hackers. Recently, pro-Tibet websites have been targeted in order to attack the sites’ visitors. These events continue to demonstrate the increasing weaponization of the Internet, and its role in creating a weaponized culture.

Update (4/18/08): The Dark Visitor is now reporting that the protest is gathering support–even outside of the hacker community. Among the sites calling for a DDoS attack on CNN.com are Guilin University of Electronic Technology. Check back at The Dark Visitor for breaking details.