Report confirms China hijack of Internet

Technology

Report confirms China hijack of Internet

A new report found that for 15 minutes in April a Chinese state controlled telecommunications company was able to hijack 15 percent of the world\'s internet...

Federal News Network Staff

November 17, 2010 3:05 pm

< a min read

Did China hijack the internet? A new report from the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission’s 2010 Annual Report, says yes.

They found that for 15 minutes in April a Chinese state controlled telecommunications company was able to hijack 15 percent of the world’s internet traffic, including data from the US military, civilian organizations and other US allies.

The Chinese could have carried out eavesdropping on unprotected communications like email and instant messaging and manipulated data passing through their country or decrypted messages.

As of now, no one outside of China can say what happened to the terabytes of data after the traffic entered China.

Congress charged the Commission to evaluate the national security implications of the bilateral trade and economic relationship between the United States and the China.

This story is part of Federal News Radio’s daily Cybersecurity Update brought to you by Tripwire. For more cybersecurity news, click here.