DHS: "Glitch" Sent 15 Percent of World's Internet Traffic to China

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Remember when 15 percent of the world's Internet traffic, including U.S. government traffic, was redirected through Chinese servers?

Well, apparently that was just an effort by Beijing to censor or maybe spy on its own people, not a genuinely malicious effort to steal any one's data. At least, that's what a DHS official said this morning.

"As I understand it, the redirection has been reported as a glitch in attempt to institute some controls within China," said Greg Schaffer, assistant secretary for cybersecurity and communications at DHS' National Protection and Programs Directorate, said during a breakfast with reporters in Washington.

"I have no indications otherwise," said Schaffer when asked if he believed the reports describing the whole incident as just a "glitch."

So, the rerouting of reams of traffic through the servers of a rising power had nothing, absolutely nothing, to do with cyber espionage. Sure it didn't.

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