Hong Kong-listed China Telecom 'hijacked' North American government and military internet traffic, potentially to grab encrypted data, a damning US government report claimed.
In an 18-minute exercise in April that affected 15 per cent of the world's internet traffic, China Telecom re-routed traffic from American internet servers to servers on the mainland, the report claimed.
US government agencies including the Senate, the military, the office of the secretary of defence and the commerce department were affected, the study, released last night by the US-China Economic and Security Review Commission, said.
'China Telecom did not hijack internet traffic,' a Hong Kong-based spokesman said.
The allegation was part of a 316-page litany of complaints against Beijing in the commission's annual report to Congress. The paper slammed China for undervaluing its currency, squeezing foreign technology manufacturers out of the country after accessing their intellectual property, and hurting hi-tech businesses globally by restricting rare earths exports.
The China Telecom case was publicised by bloggers and trade journals in April, though they largely viewed it as a technical mishap. But the study claimed the company may have launched the attacks to 'compromise the security of encrypted data'.
