‘Great Cannon’ China’s Weapon Shoots Down Internet Sites

China's new weapon: The Great Cannon to shoot down any internet site

China is widely suspected to be behind the recent attacks on GitHub and Internet freedom group Great Fire. Now we have the most concrete evidence that indeed it was, and it looks like it did so using a new weapon to boot. That’s according to a report from Citizen Lab - an ICT, security and human rights lab based within the Munk School of Global Affairs at the University of Toronto. Citizen Lab looked into these recent attacks and identified ‘Great Cannon’, a tool built to intercept data and redirect it to specific sites, as the attack system responsible for them.

The recent attacks are the first instances of the Great Cannon being deployed, and they are notable for a few reasons. Scale is one of them: Great Fire claimed “millions” of users were compromised for the attack it suffered, which hijacked Baidu and pushed the organization’s Amazon hosting bill to $30,000 per day. It is also persistent: GitHub said it faced the largest attack in its history, which was ongoing for five days.

The Citizen Lab report surfaced some evidence showing commonalities between China’s Great Firewall censorship system and Great Cannon. That’s another indicator that China was behind these malicious attacks, something it denies, but there is also concern that China’s new internet weapon could be used for more specific and targeted attacks.

The Edward Snowden leaks revealed the existence of QUANTUM, an NSA tool that could plant malware on millions of computers. Citizen Lab said that, with slight moderations, China’s Great Cannon could act in a similar way:

A technically simple change in the Great Cannon’s configuration, switching to operating on traffic from a specific IP address rather than to a specific address, would allow its operator to deliver malware to targeted individuals who communicates with any Chinese server not employing cryptographic protections.

The discovery of this tool is another reminder of the importance of secure browsing technology, like HTTPS, since weak security systems can undermine the safety of Internet users browsing websites. Furthermore, with the tool now exposed to the world, what were China’s motives for using it in such a public way? It could be that it was meant as a warning to other sites that challenge its censorship and regime so directly, but, either way, it represents a worrying change in policy from defensively censoring websites in China to proactively bringing them down.

Techcrunch

« U.S. Government Support Insurers Protection from Cyber Hacks
NSA: 'Backdoors are a Bad Idea - Give us a Front Door Key' »

Infosecurity Europe
CyberSecurity Jobsite
Perimeter 81

Directory of Suppliers

North Infosec Testing (North IT)

North Infosec Testing (North IT)

North IT (North Infosec Testing) are an award-winning provider of web, software, and application penetration testing.

LockLizard

LockLizard

Locklizard provides PDF DRM software that protects PDF documents from unauthorized access and misuse. Share and sell documents securely - prevent document leakage, sharing and piracy.

Resecurity

Resecurity

Resecurity is a cybersecurity company that delivers a unified platform for endpoint protection, risk management, and cyber threat intelligence.

BackupVault

BackupVault

BackupVault is a leading provider of automatic cloud backup and critical data protection against ransomware, insider attacks and hackers for businesses and organisations worldwide.

ZenGRC

ZenGRC

ZenGRC (formerly Reciprocity) is a leader in the GRC SaaS landscape, offering robust and intuitive products designed to make compliance straightforward and efficient.

Hex Security

Hex Security

Hex Security Limited is a specialist Information Assurance (IA) consultancy working with associates and partners to deliver security certification and accreditation support.

Allen & Overy

Allen & Overy

Allen & Overy is an international law firm. Practice areas include Cybersecurity and Data Protection.

Hack in the Box Security Conference (HitBSecConf)

Hack in the Box Security Conference (HitBSecConf)

HITBSecConf is a platform for the discussion and dissemination of next generation computer security issues. Our events feature two days of training and a two-day multi-track conference

MNCERT/CC

MNCERT/CC

MNCERT/CC is the national Computer Emergency Response Team for Mongolia.

ClickDatos

ClickDatos

ClickDatos specializes in consulting, auditing, data protection training, accredited by ISO/IEC 27001 certification.

Resilia

Resilia

RESILIA is a comprehensive portfolio of tools and training to help your organization achieve global best practice in cyber security.

NSIDE Attack Logic

NSIDE Attack Logic

NSIDE Attack Logic simulates real-world cyber attacks to detect vulnerabilities in corporate networks and systems.

ThirdWatch

ThirdWatch

ThirdWatch is a Data Science company with real-time automated fraud prevention solutions.

Data Security Inc

Data Security Inc

Data Security, Inc. is the leading American manufacturer and supplier of hard drive degaussers, magnetic tape degaussers as well as hard drive and solid state destruction devices.

Document Security Systems (DSS)

Document Security Systems (DSS)

DSS anti-counterfeit, authentication, and brand protection solutions are deployed to prevent attacks which threaten products, digital presence, financial instruments, and identification.

eSec Forte Technologies

eSec Forte Technologies

eSec Forte Technologies is a CMMi Level 3 certified Global Consulting and IT Security Services company.

Servian

Servian

Servian is one of Australia's leading IT consultancies, with expertise in cloud, data, machine learning, DevOps and cybersecurity.

SuperCom

SuperCom

SuperCom are a global secure solutions integrator and technology provider for governments and other consumers facing organizations around the world.

Cyber Griffin

Cyber Griffin

Founded by the City of London Police in 2017, Cyber Griffin is an initiative that supports businesses and individuals in the Square Mile to protect themselves from cyber crime.

Locuz

Locuz

At Locuz, we’ve made it our mission to help businesses like yours create an actionable digital strategy.

Bleach Cyber

Bleach Cyber

Bleach Cyber helps small businesses with an affordable and user-friendly solution for managing cloud security.