Google confirms Internet traffic hijack

 On Monday Internet traffic hijacking disrupted several Google services, including cloud-hosting and search services.

Google confirmed Monday’s disruption and said it assumes the cause was external. Service interruptions lasted for almost two hours and ended around 5:30 p.m. EST according to the Network-monitoring companies. The incident was suspicious because it rerouted data traffic to Google through Russian and Chinese telecommunications companies.

“The hijacking was the worst one affecting Google that his company has seen”, Alex Henthorn-Iwane, an executive at the network-intelligence co. ThousandEyes said. 

The Department of Homeland Security did not respond immediately to an appeal for comment.

Such rerouting can make possible espionage and financial theft. It can also knock essential services offline. Henthorn-Iwane says this case may have been a war-game test of hijacking capabilities by a nation-state.