US Website Covering China’s Bo Xilai Scandal Hacked

By Tech Wire Asia | 23 April, 2012

A US-based Chinese-language website that has reported extensively on the Bo Xilai scandal in China says it was crippled for several hours by a concerted hacking attack.

Bo Xilai, Chongqing party secretary attends the closing session of the annual National People's Congress in the Great Hall of the People, in Beijing, China, Wednesday, March 14, 2012. Despite his popularity, Bo has been a polarizing figure among elites over the past year, not only for the excesses of the gang crackdown but for promoting mass sing-alongs of once popular communist anthems and other "red culture." Even before the latest scandal, rumors swirled about the Bo family's wealth and the shenanigans of his Oxford-educated son, Guagua, who has appeared shirtless at parties on photos posted on the Internet. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)

The Boxun website had to move to a new webhost after the denial-of-service attack on Friday, its manager said.

Boxun has reported for several weeks on the scandal surrounding Bo Xilai.

Mr Bo was removed from key political posts as his wife was investigated for the murder of a British businessman.

Boxun’s original webhost, Name.com, told the Associated Press news agency that the hack was one of the biggest in the company’s history.

It reportedly followed an emailed threat that it would be attacked if it did not disable the site.

It is not clear who launched the attacks, but the manager of Boxun.com, Watson Meng, was quoted as saying he believed they were ordered by China’s security services.

A denial-of-service attack involves hackers paralysing a website by bombarding it with enquiries.

Continue reading at BBC News.