Telegram reports 'powerful' cyberattack originating from China amid continued Hong Kong protests

Messaging platform Telegram has been the target of a cyber attack coinciding with massive street protests in Hong Kong.

Telegram took to Twitter to announce the “powerful” distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack, saying its servers were filled with “GADZILLIONS of garbage requests” which makes it impossible for the server to process “legitimate requests.” This may lead to connection issues for users. However, according to Telegram, the cyberattack was not a threat to user data.

Telegram’s CEO Pavel Durov confirmed the attack originated from China. “IP addresses coming mostly from China. Historically, all state actor-sized DDoS (200-400 Gb/s of junk) we experienced coincided in time with protests in Hong Kong (coordinated on @telegram),” he tweeted. 

The protestors had been using Telegram to coordinate their movements and actions. South China Morning Post reported that earlier this week Ivan Ip, a man who ran a large Telegram messaging group, was arrested by the police.