On 4/20, Ellen Nakashmia reported for the Washington Post on how hackers have taken down Boxun, a U.S. based website that covered a recent Chinese political scandal. I blogged about this the other day, but this WashPo article had a few more interesting details. Notably, Boxun's owner believes that he was targeted by Chinese hackers. Moreover, hackers threatened Boxun's hosting company with a massive DDOS attack, demanding that the hosting company hand over Boxun's domain to the hackers.
Boxun then moved to a second hosting company. That second hosting company also had to get rid of Boxun. The website is now on its third hosting company.
I thought this article was important because it highlights how far the Chinese will go to stifle free speech and control information. Granted, there is no conclusive evidence that the Chinese government is behind this, but it appears likely. Censoring Chinese micro-blogs and controlling Xinhau is one thing. Demanding that a U.S. based hosting company hand over a dissenting website or suffer DDOS attack? That's a whole 'nother story.
You can find the WashPo source article here.
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