Hackers launched millions of hits from several locations on Cape Town 2010 websites, according to Joseph Vijayam, IT chair for the Lausanne Movement. He and other conference officials declined to speculate about the source of the malicious attack, which interrupted global links for the first two days of the conference. Doug Birdsall, executive chair of the conference, told Christianity Today that he was hugely disappointed. “Why would anybody do such a thing? This is not consistent with values of any kind.”
Seven hundred sites in 95 countries were prepared to extend the congress to a wider audience, in addition to individuals accessing presentations on their own computers. As a result of the cyber attacks internet broadcasts were impossible for the first two days of the congress. “Finally, after two rough days, they are being served as planned,” said Victor Nakah, GlobaLink chair for the congress.
Officials also clarified that an internal virus, brought in by a mobile phone, had affected convention computers.
The problems were solved primarily by two cousins from Bangalore, India–IT experts who had registered as volunteers to help with routine IT tasks. Unknown to conference organizers, they had the skills needed to respond to the unexpected attack.
