Slashdot Mirror
Twitter, Facebook DDoS Attack Targeted One User
An anonymous reader writes "A Georgian blogger with accounts on Twitter, Facebook, LiveJournal, and Google's Blogger and YouTube was targeted in a denial of service attack that led to yesterday's site-wide outage at Twitter and problems at the other sites on, according to a Facebook executive. The blogger, who uses the account name 'Cyxymu' (the name of a town in the Republic of Georgia), had accounts on all of the different sites that were attacked at the same time, Max Kelly, chief security officer at Facebook, told CNet News." Here are user Cyxymu's LiveJournal Google cache and LiveJournal account (unreachable at this writing). Larry Magid writes on CNet that this individual blogs about independence of a breakaway region of Georgia. Macworld has some speculation in other directions on the motivations behind the DDoS attack.
Update: 08/07 19:52 GMT by KD : Cyber attacks on Cyxymu are not new. For over a year Evgeny Morozov has been calling attention to him as the first digital refugee.
Update: 08/07 19:52 GMT by KD : Cyber attacks on Cyxymu are not new. For over a year Evgeny Morozov has been calling attention to him as the first digital refugee.
Any guesses as to how many more people will start following "Cyxymu" solely because of this attack? It's called The Streisand Effect, Russia, and it's very real.
"Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former."
So if you ever hear of a simultaneous attack on SlashDot and Twitter... that's aimed at me. See, I have accounts on both sites, so clearly...
Here in capitalist America whole country use Twitter to get informed. In Soviet Russia, Twitter shut down whole country to get informer!
So immediatly following a true DDoS attack on these sites you provide links to them so that they can then be \.'d this...is...awsome.
Some people didn't like what was posted to twitter in the past 24 hours and had other people take it down. It's a distraction. Scrutinize what happened before it down and not the distraction of it going down and you'll have your answer.
Wasn't yesterday the anniversary of the Russian military incursion in South Ossetia in Georgia? Perhaps after Twitter's widespread involvement with the events in Iran, certain political elements didn't want it happening there as well?
Shameless plug for my photos on Flickr
I'm interested in how each different network will handle the situation. We have moved to centralization on the Internet, and I'm curious as to whether any of these places will give in to the attackers demands, such as disabling or removing the atackees account.
Sig: I stole this sig.
The coordinated Internet attack against a computer account owned by a Georgian is likely not a coincidence as the attack occurred precisely on the day marking the 1-year anniversary of this show of Russian military force. For that same reason, that a pair of Russian submarines loaded with nuclear missiles were recently patrolling off the East Coast of the United States is not a coincidence.
There has been numerous DDOS attacks over the years by Russia's youth group the "Nashi" but mainly against the ukraine. I'm sure in a year or so when the media dies down some crazy Putin funded mother Russia group will come out and admit to it.
Yesterday, he was the target of a DDoS attack. Today? The target of the Slashdot Effect. Poor guy will never have a functioning social networking page again...
Well, technically they went in after repeatedly telling the Georgians to stop fucking with the south ossetians. Obviously there is more to it than this but for those of us who actually followed the events leading up to the russian forces entering south ossetia it's painfully obvious that most people only noticed something was going on when western media outlets began pumping out "Russia invades Georgia!", "$POLITICIAN says Russian attack on Georgia worse than nazi atrocities" and similar headlines.
/Mikael
Greylisting is to SMTP as NAT is to IPv4
Here is the list of active Iranian opposition to coup government that got attacked yesterday as well:
http://www.facebook.com/mousavi
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Zahra-Rahnavard-/79757303129
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Dr-Mirdamadi-/129589377387
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Abdollah-Ramezanzadeh/104800577446
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Behzad-Nabavi-/112121917445
source of list: http://iran.whyweprotest.net/news-current-events/27068-mousavis-facebook-deleted-4.html#post60410
Nuclear POWERED, not nuclear ARMED. If you read the source and not the blog refering to the source you'd know this already. "Defense Department officials declined to speculate on which weapons might be aboard the two submarines." http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/05/world/05patrol.html
http://www.worldsoccerbars.com
Odd, CNN had reported they were Akula-Class Attack submarines and specifically pointed out that they did not carry nuclear warheads. I think this article is sensationalizing the fact that they are nuclear-powered by using the more vague term "nuclear-armed" in order to make people think that they're boomers.
If the location of Russian Boomers was world news while on patrol they wouldn't be a show of force they'd be a sign of weakness as the whole point is you have to fear either a first strike without time to respond or a retaliatory strike from a target you can't take out in your first strike because you can't find it.
Knowledge of where that launch platform is (which means you can bet your ass it'd being shadowed by an attack sub of our own) would invalidate the threat.
Well its kind of badass to be the sole purpose some of the world's largest websites got beaten offline.. Aww who am I kidding, the jerk from high school still wins.
Apparently Facebook's security officer identified this particular account as the target. I haven't seen any discussion as to what evidence he's basing that on, but I'm guessing he didn't just pick a random account out of the air.
>had accounts on all of the different sites that were attacked at the same time
That pretty much describes a large number of users that use YouTwitFace. Maybe YouTwitFace was the target...
Don't kid yourself. It's the size of the regexp AND how you use it that counts.
They are Akula class attack submarines, which in a war would primarily be used against submarines and ships. They are quite possibly armed with nuclear weapons, but not ICBMS. The big nuclear missiles are on Typhoon class subs that are, presumably, drifting around undetected somewhere in the Barents Sea.
Are you sure Russia attacked first? According to my own understanding of the situation, it's Georgia that invaded South Ossetia, a territory that declared independence from Georgia since the mid-1990's and has many Russian citizens within its territory. You can understand Russia's interest in those two territories.
So it's not as simple as declaring "Georgia's territory is sacrosanct therefore Georgia should be united".
This space left intentionally blank.
Amen brother! It's saddening how the western media choose to ignore when Georgia started shelling civilian targets in South Ossetia and then launched a full scale invasion. Georgians were preparing for it for 4 years and planned to do it in one day before Russia could interfere. But only when Russia responded a day and a half later did we here about and what we heard was "Russia Invades Georgia!". There are both sides to this story but in this particular case it was Georgia that was the aggressor. And let's not forget history. South Ossetia was given to Georgia by Stalin ( who is Georgian) in the 1950's. Prior to that Ossetia was it's own entity and they and Georgians have a mutual hatred for each other dating back centuries. So when you hear that Georgia "lost it's territories" to Russian "aggression", stop and consider the real facts, not what news media is telling you!
And tyrants as always don't much like anyone else's freedom.
All the more reason to oppose tyranny. Wherever it is found.
Now to get the Internet to recognize tyranny as damage and route around it...
deleting the extra space after periods so i can stay relevant, yeah.
if the usa invaded isla de la juventud?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isla_de_la_Juventud
because havana has political disagreements with the population there
oh, the people of south ossetia have disagreements with tbilisi? gee, fucking wow. so the people in south ossetia are like outlying regions in every goddamn country on the planet? awesome rationale for russian military invasion
russia is engaging in neoimperialism. to frame russian aggression against a small neighbor as some sort of defensive posture is the biggest pile of steaming bullshit imaginable. biden is absolutely right: russia is stuck in the 19th century. seriously, russians: what the hell is wrong with your country? why are you so goddamn ultranationalistic? why do you favor "strength" over justice? putin walks around with his shirt off, russians swoon, and the thuggish crimes of the veritable mafia that runs that country are forgiven
i now await my complete psychological deflections and projecting on others: more tired typical anti-americanisms when RUSSIA is the one engaging in military aggression (its the usa's fault, obviously, when russian tanks roll, obviously!), and other such completely intellectually incoherent attempts at justifying what is nothing more than obvious naked russian imperialistic aggression on a small southern neighbor
sorry if i sound so critical of russia. easy solution: just come find me and drive an icepick into a brain, pour some polonium in my tea, or dose my food with dioxin
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leon_Trotsky#Assassination
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Litvinenko_poisoning
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viktor_Yushchenko#Dioxin_poisoning_controversy
for daring to question oh so unquestionable mother russia. or just shoot me in the street, like you do any other russian journalist who dare criticize the rationale and thinking of the strict party line of the dumbest ultranationalist russian thug, right?
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/feb/05/russias-gangster-state/
heaven forbid a little self-critical introspection might actually result in a better russia, right?
russia is a pathetic thugocracy: "strength" over justice
that kind of "strength" will of course result in the weakest russia that will ever be, that will make the humiliation of the russo-japanese war look like a pride building exercise, mark my words russia. not that russia will ever find that out and correct its course. because criticism of russia is a crime
russia: self-criticism is the way to a better russia. only the psychology of a thug is antagonistic to this idea. and so without such introspection, you get the brutal thug life you deserve
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
Well, technically they went in after repeatedly telling the Georgians to stop fucking with the south ossetians.
If that's your attitude then I certainly hope that you are in favor of the Taiwanese, Basque, and Tamil Tigers having their independence. South Ossetia was part of Georgia before the Russians went in there and took it away from them. You may regard what they did as justifiable (I honestly don't know enough to form a conclusion one way or another) but it seems dishonest to say that the Georgians were "fucking with" them without also noting that South Ossetia was a part of Georgia.
I want peace on earth and goodwill toward man.
We are the United States Government! We don't do that sort of thing.
The big nuclear missiles are on Typhoon class subs that are, presumably, drifting around undetected somewhere in the Barents Sea.
Of course that is except the one which that nice Scottish-accented Lithuanian captain handed over to the US in the early nineties.
Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent. Polar Scope Align for iOS
He was identified by a Facebook admin. He's an outspoken blogger about the whole Georgian conflict, and the anniversary of the Russian invasion of Georgia just passed. If someone isn't trying to shut him up (Russia, hackers annoyed by his shit, etc), then someone decided he'd be a good test of their latest botnet.
Julie Moult is an idiot.
According to a report by the "Times Online" and another report by guardian.co.uk", today is the 1-year anniversary of the Russian invasion of Georgia.
Aug 8 Dustin Hoffman born in Los Angeles, 1937
Aug 8 Montenegro declares war on Germany, 1914
Aug 8 Richard Nixon resigns the US presidency, 1974
Aug 8 The Great Train Robbery -- $7,368,000, 1963
The above suggests to me that it's American Neocons seeking to regain the power of the presidency, working in conjunction with Serbian terrorists angry at their Montenegrin brothers along with a few German Nazis still fighting the good fight, a plot funded by the money stolen in 1963, and spearheaded by none other than than Dustin Hoffman.
because pre-soviet history allows for excusing any crimes russia commits
additionally, america does bad things. therefore, its ok for russia to do bad things
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
"america does bad things. therefore, its ok for russia to do bad things"
assume america is the most bloodthirsty, vile evil empire that ever existed in the history of the world
ok
in what way does this validate anything bad russia does?
"well see my neighbor, he stabbed his wife to death. therefore when i cut your arm off, that's excuseable"
very shallow efforts at rationalization, no?
a strong people are a people who can engage in self-criticism and take criticism from others. in fact, this is probably the most effective metric for true strength in the world, on any issue, from individuals to entire nations
so you have criticisms of the usa? good, fine, lets hear them. i welcome your criticisms. the usa is not perfect. i have plenty of problems with american behavior too. i spit on the gw bush administration. i recognize every subject of american aggression you raise in your comment and a whole bunch more you didn't mention
and now, guess what... its your turn. let us hear YOU criticize russia. let us hear you address my criticisms of russia. directly, rather than deflecting my words back emptily: "well, america is bad too, so you can't criticize"
what is this, kindergarten? are you 5 years old?
is it impossible for a russian to self-criticize or hear criticism of russia?
do you think this is a sign of strength on your part?
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
The reason there are so many Russian citizens in South Ossetia is because when the region became semi-autonomous prior to the conflict, Russia granted the South Ossetians Russian citizenship.
If we use the word "Ossetian" to signify an ethnic group, yes, you are right. If we use the word to signify the residents of the region, you are only partly right.
Try this site: http://ossetians.com/eng/ Browse around. Look at the number of Russian army generals, and later, the number of "Heros of the Soviet". Whether we are discussing the ethnic group, or the territory, Ossetians have a long and rich relationship with Russia.
Be sure to hit some of the links on this page: http://ossetians.com/eng/index.php?showcat=jump&f=38
"Windows is like the faint smell of piss in a subway: it's there, and there's nothing you can do about it." - Charlie Br
how does responsibility and accountability work?
you take stock of events, and you admit where you have done wrong
but there is an alternative line of thought, that losers engages in, which is: you take stock of events, and you explain away everything as completely not your fault
"If you cannot condemn American actions when they are obviously done for selfish reasons (operation Ajax?) then you can't condemn Russian actions when they are done for what you consider to be selfish reasons."
what the hell does that have to do with anything? give me a list of every single crime america ever did. i admit to all of them. at this point you can criticize russia? or: give me a list of every single crime america ever did. i admit to none of them. so russia can now commit horrible crimes? what the hell does anything america ever did, whether america is the devil himself or a complete innocent angel, have to do with the evil russia did?
basically what you are saying is "russia doesn't have to be accountable for anything bad it ever did, because somebody, somewhere else, did something bad once"
this is how you think about the world. this is the paraphrasing of your words above
the way you think is the path of ruin for us all. we need people in this world to take MORE responsiblity and accountability, not less. and all your thinking is "this is how you take less responsibility: you observe somebody else did someting bad, so now its ok i did something bad"
no, idiot: america does plenty of bad things. russia does plenty of bad things. you admit to them. that russia did bad things does not excuse the usa. that america did bad things does not excuse russia. get it idiot? you don't read the histories of the world to explain why no one is responsible for anything in this world, you read it to understand the context of certain vile actions and behaviors, but it doesn't excuse ANYONE
here's a random bit of history:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katyn_massacre
now, according to you, and the way you think above, this bit of history gives america the right to do evil without explaining itself. why? because russia did something bad once. fucking bullshit, right? well that fucking bullshit is exactly your words above, in reverse
for example, you point out operation ajax. ok, and? this was something evil america did. so now what? now we can't criticize russia? now russia is allowed to do evil things? because operation ajax happened once? wtf?
you don't have any intellectual honesty. we need MORE repsonsibility taking in this world, not less, and your whole way of thinking is all about tearing down accountability and responsibility
you are what's wrong with this world. no, i really mean that. your rationalization is the exact same rationalization that goes through the mind of anyone right before they commit any crime in this world: "well someone else did something bad, so this crime is ok"
i have a job for you to do: criticize russia. criticize something bad it did. you will find out an amazing thing: you can still criticize the usa after you do that. that you can criticize BOTH the usa and russia, and that criticizing russia doesn't mean you're an american neocon, and that criticizing america doesn't mean your a russian apologist
isn't that fucking amazing you moron?
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
I would go even further - the logic exposed by the grand-parent can be used to justify the liberation of Chechnya, since it's population is clearly being oppressed by Russia, including killing of tens of thousands of Chechnya's residents and the installation of a murderous (just recently another journalist critical of the government was murdered) and oppressive puppet-government.