Security glitch redirects most of China’s Internet users to a phantom Wyoming business
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/01/22/security-glitch-redirects-most-of-chinas-internet-users-to-a-phantom-wyoming-business/
Security glitch redirects most of Chinas Internet users to a phantom Wyoming business
By Arturo Garcia
Wednesday, January 22, 2014 19:06 EST
For eight hours on Tuesday, about 75 percent of Internet traffic in China was redirected to a secretive company in Cheyenne, Wyoming, the New York Times reported.
About 500 million Internet users in China reported being unable to access websites using the .com prefix during the strange outage; instead, they were taken to Internet addresses used by Sophidea, Inc. A separate rash of traffic was re-sent to sites registered by Dynamic Internet Technology, a company that specializes in helping Internet users avoid Chinese firewalls.
A 2011 investigation by Reuters determined that Sophidias former address was also used by around 2,000 shell companies, including one that incurred a federal indictment for processing payments for gambling sites, as well as pharmaceutical websites selling illegal substances. Sophideas agent, Wyoming Corporate Services, has since moved into a new building.
Wyoming Corporate Services owner, Gerald Pitts, told the Times that his company acted as the agent for around 8,000 companies, but that he was not 100 percent sure what they did. He also said he would not discuss Sophidias business without due process.
The Times reported that one theory about Tuesdays incident holds that attempts by Chinese Internet censors to block Sophidia sites instead funnelled users to them.