Website that skirts Chinese censorship says it's target of massive cyberattack

A website that helps Chinese Internet users see censored pages says it is the target of a massive denial-of-service attack and is struggling to stay online.

GreatFire.org wrote in a post Thursday that the actions started Tuesday in the first such attack ever directed at the site. The site wrote that it didn't know who was launching the attacks but that they coincided with increased pressure from Chinese officials.

China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology did not answer phone calls Friday seeking comment.

GreatFire.org wrote that it was receiving 2.6 billion requests per hour, which are useless traffic designed to overwhelm the site. The organization said the attack was costing the site $30,000 per day to stay up.

The group doesn't reveal where it's based or who runs it.