Revealed: China’s Cyberwar ‘Cannon’

Computer security researchers have discovered a new “offensive device” being used by China’s powerful Internet censors that gives them the power to launch attacks on websites and inject malicious viruses on computers around the world.

The device is associated with China’s so-called Great Firewall, which blocks Internet searches in China for information the government deems controversial, such as from Chinese dissidents and government critics. But this new tool, which researchers dubbed the Great Cannon, actually can commandeer an unwitting person’s computer and marshal it into a network of machines used to flood websites with traffic and force them to shut down.

The cannon was used in such a denial-of-service attack on GreatFire.org, which helps Internet users circumvent Chinese censors, researchers at Citizen Lab, with the Munk School of Global Affairs at University of Toronto, and the University of California at Berkeley, said in a report released Friday. The Daily Beast obtained an advance copy of the document.

The Citizen Lab team concluded that it would be “trivial” to convert the Great Cannon from its censorship mission into a powerful system for injecting viruses, spyware, and other malicious code onto any foreign computer that communicates with a website in China, and that’s not protected with encryption.

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/04/10/revealed-china-s-cyberwar-cannon.html?via=mobile&source=twitter

Isn't it strange how I find these stories on pretty much any news site not named "The Intercept?" Now why would that be??