China’s State-Backed Hackers Intensify Cyber Attacks on Uyghur Times and Uyghur Organizations

VOA reports that U.S. media giant News Corp and Uyghur rights groups, including Uyghur Times, say they are facing ongoing cyberattacks.

By Uyghur Times Editorial Team

Feb 10, 2022

According to a VOA report, U.S. media giant News Corp and Uyghur rights groups, including Uyghur Times, say they are facing ongoing cyberattacks. News Corp is investigating an intrusion that compromised the emails and documents of some employees and journalists.

The Chinese government has a long record of attacking Uyghur groups in the diaspora. Peter Irwin of the Uyghur Human Rights Project said such attacks may be intended to intimidate critics of the Chinese government and deter journalists and rights groups from continuing critical reporting, particularly as Uyghur organizations call for a boycott of the Beijing Olympics over alleged abuses in the Uyghur homeland.”

World Uyghur Congress and Uyghur Human Rights Project have published multiple press releases on Chinese cyberattacks targeting their websites and servers.

Uyghur Times, an independent media organization founded by Uyghurs to speak about Uyghurs, has been one of the targets of Chinese cyberattacks since its foundation in 2018.

Uyghur Times, along with other Uyghur websites, went through another round of Chinese cyberattacks in September 2019, according to Volexity, a Washington-based cybersecurity firm. In its September 2019 blog post, Volexity stated that cyberspace is becoming a battleground for the Uyghurs. The post specifically mentioned three websites of the Uyghur Times: the English, Uyghur, and Chinese main index. These days the level of Chinese surveillance against Uyghurs extends well beyond their borders and has entered the digital realm.

The mainstream media such as CNN, PC Magazine, TechCrunch, and many other media outlets reported the news of the Chinese cyberattack against Uyghur groups and Uyghur diaspora news outlets.

Google and Apple also warned their users against the virus that the Chinese hackers had used to attack Uyghur Times websites. As a result, the Uyghur Times decided to abandon the WordPress CMS and instead create its own CMS.

Starting from January 10, 2022, we have seen more cyberattacks by unknown hackers aimed at the main index of the English and Chinese websites of the Uyghur Times. ” “Recently, especially starting from January 10, 2022, we have seen more cyberattacks by unknown hackers aimed at the main index of English and Chinese websites of Uyghur Times,” Imin Imin told VOA, adding that his organization’s email server had also been the target of similar attacks.”

Mr. Koznak, the chief technical officer of the Uyghur Times, told Uyghur Times team that “The types of cyber attacks we have received recently include DoS and DDoS attack, phishing attack, E-mail server attack, and ransomware attacks. As a result, they have managed to stop the server briefly a few times. We took quick and strong measures to protect our server and data security, as well as the privacy of our visitors. We are pretty sure that it is the nature of the Chinese authorities to continue to attack the code of our websites, generate mass fake visitors to steal data, and add a burden on our server.”

China’s digital repression against Uyghur groups and Uyghur Times includes online harassment, smear campaigns, cyberattacks, and the use of fake accounts.

In May 2021, Over fifty Chinese media platforms such as Global Times (环球时报), Sina, QQ, and 163 published defamatory reports about Uyghur Times and its founder Tahir Imin, lies created by the Chinese government mouthpiece Global Times. Their purpose is to create strife between Uyghurs and other Muslims.