7 Interconnected Contests
Distributed Denial of Service Attacks and Other Digital Control Measures
in Asia
Hal Roberts, Ethan Zuckerman, and John Palfrey
In early 2008 the Vietnamese government announced plans to mine bauxite, the
mineral used to make aluminum, in the Central Highlands of Vietnam in cooperation
with a Chinese company. These plans became the subject of increasing protest beginning in 2008 and continuing thereafter. Protesters have expressed environmental
concerns about damage to mined areas and toxic by-products of bauxite mining.
While some activists involved with the bauxite protests have been connected to
banned prodemocracy movements, others have been protesting the Chinese-backed
mine on grounds of environmental concern or national pride.
1
In 2009 a group of activists distributed a petition and created a Web site named http://
bauxitevietnam.info to protest the bauxite mining. According to reports from Vietnamese free-speech advocates, both the bauxitevietnam.info site and the larger baux ite
protest movement have been under constant attack since 2009. The government has
repeatedly detained and interrogated both the founders of bauxitevietnam.info and
many of those who signed the petition. Forged e-mails, purportedly by the founders of
the Web site, have been distributed online, falsely claiming that the leaders were quitting the protest. Activists report that the Vietnamese government broke into the site ’ s
servers to steal protester information and shut down the site.
2
In January 2010 a fl ood of traffi c from compromised computers overwhelmed
bauxitevietnam.info, making it inaccessible not only in Vietnam but also throughout
the entire Internet.
3 Political actors increasingly use this type of attack, known as a
distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack, to control content on the Internet. Vietnam
has routinely fi ltered Internet sites the government considers to be controversial,
preventing users in Vietnam from accessing them without taking unusual steps. In
contrast, a DDoS attack makes a Web site inaccessible to all online audiences by disabling a targeted Web server under a fl ood of traffi c.
This particular DDoS attack used a botnet, an army of “ zombie ” computers that have
been taken over, in the vast majority of cases, without their owners ’ knowledge. These
zombie computers are generally used to commit some sort of fraud on the network. For
example, some computers controlled by botnets are used to sign up for thousands of
Distributed Denial of Service Attacks and Other Digital Control Measures
in Asia
Hal Roberts, Ethan Zuckerman, and John Palfrey
In early 2008 the Vietnamese government announced plans to mine bauxite, the
mineral used to make aluminum, in the Central Highlands of Vietnam in cooperation
with a Chinese company. These plans became the subject of increasing protest beginning in 2008 and continuing thereafter. Protesters have expressed environmental
concerns about damage to mined areas and toxic by-products of bauxite mining.
While some activists involved with the bauxite protests have been connected to
banned prodemocracy movements, others have been protesting the Chinese-backed
mine on grounds of environmental concern or national pride.
1
In 2009 a group of activists distributed a petition and created a Web site named http://
bauxitevietnam.info to protest the bauxite mining. According to reports from Vietnamese free-speech advocates, both the bauxitevietnam.info site and the larger baux ite
protest movement have been under constant attack since 2009. The government has
repeatedly detained and interrogated both the founders of bauxitevietnam.info and
many of those who signed the petition. Forged e-mails, purportedly by the founders of
the Web site, have been distributed online, falsely claiming that the leaders were quitting the protest. Activists report that the Vietnamese government broke into the site ’ s
servers to steal protester information and shut down the site.
2
In January 2010 a fl ood of traffi c from compromised computers overwhelmed
bauxitevietnam.info, making it inaccessible not only in Vietnam but also throughout
the entire Internet.
3 Political actors increasingly use this type of attack, known as a
distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack, to control content on the Internet. Vietnam
has routinely fi ltered Internet sites the government considers to be controversial,
preventing users in Vietnam from accessing them without taking unusual steps. In
contrast, a DDoS attack makes a Web site inaccessible to all online audiences by disabling a targeted Web server under a fl ood of traffi c.
This particular DDoS attack used a botnet, an army of “ zombie ” computers that have
been taken over, in the vast majority of cases, without their owners ’ knowledge. These
zombie computers are generally used to commit some sort of fraud on the network. For
example, some computers controlled by botnets are used to sign up for thousands of