HONG KONG — A Chinese cyberweapon dubbed the Great Cannon is launching DDoS attacks on a Hong Kong webform after years of silence, AT&T Cybersecurity reported on Wednesday.<br /><br />The internet security developer says analysis indicates that the Cannon begin attacking the webforum named LIHKG in August.<br /><br />According to AT&T Cybersecurity, Hong Kong activists have been using the forum to coordinate protests.<br /><br />The Citizen Lab at the University of Toronto reported previously that the Great Cannon represents a "significant escalation in state-level information control."<br /><br />AT&T Cybersecurity states that the Cannon inserts malicious Javascript code into browsers when users access servers within China's Great Firewall.<br /><br />The Great Cannon then uses the code to send numerous requests to overwhelm the targeted domain's resources and to make it unavailable.<br /><br />According to AT&T Cybersecurity, Great Cannon caused global disruption in 2015, when it was deployed against Github and the online freedom group GreatFire.org.<br /><br />The security firm says that the Chinese-language news website Mingjingnews.com was attacked from two years ago and that it expects more attacks against LIHKG.
