Ai Weiwei website ‘victim of hackers’

Change.org founder says staff have stabilised website after it became completely inaccessible following denial-of-service attacks The social campaigns website Change.org has alleged Chinese hackers have launched a distributed denial-of-service attack on it, after it hosted a petition calling for the release of detained artist Ai Weiwei. The founder of the US-based site said staff appeared to have stabilised the platform after it became totally inaccessible for short periods due to the attacks, which began early on Monday. Around 90,000 people have signed the petition calling for Ai’s release, which was launched two weeks ago by leading members of the international arts community, including Richard Armstrong, director of the Guggenheim Museum and Foundation, Glen Lowry of the Museum of Modern Art in New York, and Sir Nicholas Serota of the Tate. “We do not know the reason or exact source of these attacks,” said Ben Rattray, the founder of Change.org. “All we know is that after the unprecedented success of a campaign by leading global art museums using our platform to call on the Chinese government to release Ai Weiwei, we became the victims of highly sophisticated denial of service attacks from locations in China.” Rattray said that the initial attacks had all been traced to IP addresses in China, although hackers often use several computers to disguise their whereabouts. He added that he believed the petition was the cause of the attack because it was the most popular international campaign on the site at the moment and the first that he knew of on Change.org to directly criticise Chinese authorities. The site has apologised to users for inconvenience, but Rattray added: “Rather than take the appeal down, we will continue to stand with Ai Weiwei’s supporters to defend freedom of speech.” A spokesman for the ministry of information and industry technology in Beijing said it was not aware of the issue. Chinese authorities have responded to previous allegations of China-based cyber-attacks by saying they are “resolutely opposed” to hackers and that China is their biggest victim. Ai has been missing since officials stopped him at Beijing airport on 3 April. Authorities say the 53-year-old artist is under investigation for economic crimes, but police have not notified his family of detention. Several friends and colleagues have also disappeared, although his lawyer Liu Xiaoyuan returned home on Tuesday after several days absence. His friend Wen Tao, his driver and cousin Zhang Jinsong, accountant Hu Mingfen and designer Liu Zhenggang remain missing. Ai Weiwei China United States guardian.co.uk

Posted by on April 20, 2011. Filed under News, Politics, World News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.