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An activist group working to end Chinas Internet censorship is facing an ongoing distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack that threatens to cripples its activities.

GreatFire.org, a censorship watchdog based within the country, reported on Thursday that it had been hit with its first ever DDoS attack.

Although its not known who is behind the attack, China has been suspected of using the tactic before to take down activist websites.

DDoS attacks work by using an army of hacked computers to send an overwhelming amount of traffic to a website, effectively disabling it.

In an Internet posting, GreatFire said that they were seeing 2.6 billion requests per hour, and that its websites had been forced offline.

We are not equipped to handle a DDoS attack of this magnitude and we need help. the group added.

The DDoS attack is targeting mirror websites GreatFire created to let Chinese users access blocked content, such as Google, BBC, the New York Times and other sites known to offer articles critical of the Chinese government.

To create the mirror websites, GreatFire has been using Amazon.com to host them through its cloud services. If the country wanted to cut access to the sites, the government would have to cause collateral damage and risk blocking Amazon servers that also support a large number of businesses, according to the group.

GreatFire suspects that the DDoS is in response to a Wall Street Journal article about the groups use of cloud services to poke holes through Chinas censorship.

Because of the number of requests we are receiving, our bandwidth costs have shot up to US$30,000 per day, the group said. Amazon, which is the service we are using, has not yet confirmed whether they will forgo this.

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Anti-censorship group in China faces DDoS attack

Whoever is behind the attack is likely not a big fan of Greatfire's services, which are designed to help Web surfers in China evade the country's censorship policies.

The website greatfire.org appears to be under a massive distributed denial of service attackthe service's first, undoubtedly prompted by the mention of Greatfire in a recent Wall Street Journal article about online censorship in China.

Greatfire, for those unaware, allows uses to look up websites and keywords to see whether they're actively being blocked or otherwise censored by the Chinese governmentThe Great Firewall, as its commonly known. The website also maintains a number of mirrors of popular websites like Google, Boxun, and microblogging website Weibo, so users can access them sans restrictions.

Part of the site's success, as described in a 2014 Bloomberg article,, lies in the fact that Greatfire hosts its mirrors using Amazon's Web Services. Everything on Amazon Web Services is encrypted, so it's impossible to tell whether requests are for legitimate sites or sites that China's censors would otherwise target for content. So, to block Greatfire's service, China would have to block Amazon Web Services in general, which would undoubtedly hack off a number of businesses and other entities using Amazon's service for legitimate means.

According to Greatfire, the DDoS attack started on Tuesday, and it's hitting the site's mirrors with around 2.6 billion requests per hour (2500 times its normal traffic).

"While we have talked openly about our method of using collateral freedom to unblock websites and mobile apps that have been blocked by the Chinese authorities, the WSJ story clearly stated how the strategy works and how it is being used successfully to deliver uncensored content into China," reads a Greatfire blog post.

"We don't know who is behind this attack. However, the attack coincides with increased pressure on our organization over the last few months. The Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) publicly called us 'an anti-China website set up by an overseas anti-China organization'. We also know that CAC has put pressure on our IT partners to stop working with us. Recently, we noticed that somebody was trying to impersonate us to intercept our encrypted email."

The DDoS has allegedly bumped up Greatfire's hosting costs over at Amazon to just around $30,000 daily. It remains to be seen whether Amazon will lessen that amount as a result of the attack, or just eliminate the extra hosting cost entirely.

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Anti-Censorship Service Greatfire Hit With DDoS Attack

Googles headquarters in Beijing. Surfers in China might have found it harder to access an uncensored Google via Greatfire.org since the attack. Photograph: Sinopix/REX

An advocacy group that helps internet users inside China bypass blocks on censored content says it is suffering a denial-of-service attack disrupting its operations.

US-subsidised Greatfire.org says the attack started two days ago and traffic is 2,500 times above normal. It has affected mirror, or duplicate, websites that it has set up via encrypted web services offered by companies such as Amazon.

Greatfire.org said the attack has interfered with visitors to sites including Boxun.com, which publicises allegations of corruption and human rights abuses inside China, German provider Deutsche Welle, and Google.

The statement from a co-founder of the group, who goes by the pseudonym Charlie Smith, said its not clear who is behind the attack, but it coincides with increased pressure on the organization over the last few months and public criticism from Chinese authorities.

The Chinese government blocks thousands of websites to prevent what it deems politically sensitive information from reaching Chinese users, an effort dubbed the Great Firewall.

According to the free-expression watchdog Freedom House, since late 2013 Greatfire.org has been hosting content on domains owned by Amazon and other major companies, which officials cannot risk censoring because of their large commercial footprint within China.

Smith said the current denial-of-service attack that is flooding the mirror websites is costing the group up to $30,000 per day in bandwidth.

Greatfire.org says it gets its funding from a variety of sources, including from people and organizations inside China. The Open Technology Fund, a US-government-backed initiative to support internet freedom, says on its website it provided Greatfire.org with $114,000 in 2014.

Zhu Haiquan, spokesman of the Chinese Embassy in Washington, said: As we have always stated, Chinese laws prohibit cybercrimes of all forms. The Chinese government is making great efforts to combat cybercrimes and safeguard cybersecurity. Jumping to conclusions and making unfounded accusations is not responsible and is counterproductive.

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Chinese anti-censorship group Greatfire.org suffers massive hack

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London Angolan journalist and human rights activist Rafael Marques de Morais, joint winner of the 2015 Index on Censorship Freedom of Expression Award for Journalism, spoke at the ceremony in London on 18 March

Both as a journalist and human rights activist, Rafael Marques de Morais has exposed government and industry corruption in Angola speaking out for those whose human rights have been violated in his country. Despite repeated arrests and threats, including a 40-day detention without charge during which he was denied food and water for days, Marques de Morais has continued his investigations, most recently detailing human rights abuses within Angola's diamond companies including 500 cases of torture and 100 murders of villagers living in the vicinity. After filing charges of crimes against humanity against seven Angolan generals, Marques do Morais is now being counter-sued for $1.6 (1.09) million. Undeterred, he continues to write on corruption in Angola. He is the joint recipient of the 2015 Index on Censorship Freedom of Expression Award for Journalism.

With an award comes a greater responsibility. It is therefore my privilege to accept this journalism award, and dedicate it to my fellow Ethiopian colleagues Eskinder Nega, Reeyot Alemo, and the Zone 9 bloggers. They are in jail, currently serving some of the harshest sentences in Africa, for the crime of exercising their right to freedom of expression. For over a year, the Ethiopian government has denied adequate health care to Reeyot Alemu, who is in desperate need.

Ethiopia is the seat of the African Union, and its regime is one of the worst offenders for upholding the freedoms of the press and of expression. When a regime in Africa succeeds in trampling their citizens' rights with impunity, and enjoys such good international standing and legitimacy as Ethiopia, it becomes a textbook case for other authoritarian regimes.

I believe in the power of solidarity. I have experienced troubles of my own. It has been the solidarity of others that has helped to strengthen my courage and resolve to continue my journey.

Back in 1996, being in London and aghast at press censorship in Angola, I decided to bring it to international attention. Because I could not speak English, I fumbled through an organization's directory, and found Index on Censorship. I could understand the word Censorship. I called them and attended a meeting on Africa. My remarks were most convincing and incredibly short! "Censorship in Angola bad. Dos Santos [the president] bad. Very bad!" Then, a few months later I had an article translated and published in Index's magazine. It was disseminated through other publications in a number of countries.

On my return to Angola from this trip, I will be sitting in court, on 24 March, as the defendant on 11 separate charges of defamation brought against me by seven powerful generals and four of their business associates. I wrote a book that exposed human rights abuses in the diamond industry, in which the plaintiffs are major shareholders and whose private security company has executed many of the violations.

I am proud and honored to stand up against such a mighty power to enable many of the victims to speak out through my reports, which I have been producing for the past 10 years. I will come out of this trial stronger and empowered by the experience.

Thank you very much for this wonderful occasion.

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Angola: Rafael Marques de Morais - "I Believe in the Power of Solidarity"

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London Kenyan activist Amran Abdundi, winner of the 2015 Index on Censorship Freedom of Expression Award for Campaigning, spoke at the ceremony in London on 18 March.

Amran Abdundi is an activist who, through various channels, has worked to make life safer in northeastern Kenya supporting women who are vulnerable to rape, female circumcision and murder. Despite death threats, Abdundi's Frontier Indigenous Network (FIN) has set up shelters along the dangerous border between Kenya and Somalia, an area where militant terrorist groups pose a threat to many. Alongside these shelters, FIN also maps out conflict areas, targets the illegal arms trade which fuels local conflict and has set up radio listening groups. As a way of reaching women in remote areas, these circles help to dispel myths about tuberculosis treatment and female property ownership, and to tackle doctrines spread by the area's terror organisations. She is the recipient of the 2015 Index on Censorship Freedom of Expression Award for Campaigning.

I want to thank the judges who selected me for this award after going through so many worthwhile and wonderful nominations that were submitted from around the world. Equally I want to thank Index on Censorship's staff. I will be eternally indebted to you all.

This award goes to marginalised women of northern Kenya whom I have worked with closely for the last ten years and who have joined hands with me in fighting outdated cultural practices that deny them the right to own property, expose them to dangerous practices like FGM, and threaten them with sexual exploitation.

The award also goes to conflict concubines who were abducted by armed youths in the height of armed violence in northern Kenya and acted as comfort women for armed militias. When these women came back from conflict zones with children born out of wedlock, they were rejected by their families. This award is for them.

Society rejected them and they live in separate makeshift areas outside normal settlement areas in northern Kenya. Working together with the conflict concubines we engaged various stakeholders women leaders, elders, local government officials, cultural leaders and youths in order to open a dialogue. This led to partial acceptance by the community in accommodating them. I am still working in engaging the stakeholders to fully accept them and still hope to integrate the conflict concubines in mainstream society.

This award also goes to women who through my organizational campaign are today enjoying their constitutional right to own property, land and livestock. This is contrary to past practice when all lands, livestocks and properties acquired by women was registered in name of their husbands. Or if the woman was single or widowed, her brother or father's name. Our campaign and advocacy managed to break that outdated cultural practice.

The award also goes to women victims of armed violence perpetrated by terrorist groups, community militias and gangs along the Kenya/Somalia border. Thugs who have used their armed power to attack, rape, gang rape and block women fleeing droughts from reaching Dadaab refugee camp in northern Kenya. We used our loud speakers to confront the attackers and we documented the abuses along the border.

I have done all these things not to win any award or recognition but because of a grave reality on the ground. A horror which moved me to join hands with other women and form a woman-led organisation called FRONTIER INDIGENOUS NETWORK.

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Kenya: Amran Abdundi - "This Award is for the Marginalised Women of Northern Kenya"