Net traffic ‘hijack’ via China, Russia impacts Google

SAN FRANCISCO

: An internet diversion that rerouted data traffic through

Russia

and China disrupted several Google services, including search and cloud-hosting services.


Nigerian internet provider Main One Cable Co took responsibility on Tuesday for the glitch that caused some Google traffic to be temporarily misrouted, saying it accidentally caused the problem during a network upgrade.

Service interruptions lasted for nearly 2 hours and ended about 5:30 pm EST, network service companies said. In addition to Russian and Chinese telecommunications companies, a Nigerian internet provider was also involved.

Experts from the network intelligence company Thousand Eyes said the misdirected traffic was particularly concerning given the list of countries the sensitive data was passing through. The incident was particularly suspicious because traffic was being sent to the Chinese government’s Net provider,

China Telecom

.