Chinese cyber attack hits Australia
An Australian company has been hit by a cyber attack from China that was intense enough to slow traffic on part of the country's second-largest broadband network, officials have revealed.
Among the companies affected were Australian Associated Press, the national news agency, and the Australian branch of Rupert Murdoch's News Ltd.
However, these organisations were not the targets, said the telecommunications company Optus.
Attackers in China flooded an international network link to one of Optus' large commercial clients in Australia in what is known as a denial-of-service attack, the company said.
This caused congestion that significantly slowed internet and email links to other customers on that link, including AAP and News.
Optus declined to identify the company targeted, citing commercial confidentiality.
News Ltd's The Australian newspaper reported that it was a multinational financial institution, but had no further details. Optus also declined to say how many customers were affected.
The attack was blocked after about two-and-a-half hours.
Denial-of-service attacks involve a flood of computers all trying to connect to a single site at the same time, overwhelming the server that handles the traffic.