Chaos Monkey Released Into the Wild
Quince alPillan writes "Netflix revealed today that they've released Chaos Monkey, an open source Amazon Web Service testing tool that will randomly turn off instances in Auto Scaling Groups. 'We have found that the best defense against major unexpected failures is to fail often. By frequently causing failures, we force our services to be built in a way that is more resilient. We are excited to make a long-awaited announcement today that will help others who embrace this approach. ...source code for the founding member of the Simian Army, Chaos Monkey, is available to the community.'"
And by "into the wild", they mean they're now letting it run on other people's sites.
Chaos Reigns.
panic(cpu 0): Enraged Monkey Error: Out of bananas!
We have found that the best defense against major unexpected failures is to fail often. By frequently causing failures, we force our services to be built in a way that is more resilient.
Sounds like what has been common in Erlang for decades.
Off topic: when I watch the /. homepage, I am logged in. As soon as I click on a story, I become an Anonymous Coward. Did anybody else experience this bug too?
I though this was about monkeys...
What an apt name for our new help desk tech!
One black, one red, one green, one blue and one white mana + X ,where X is random. Throw any in play instant through the room: if it lands face-down eat a banana. If it lands face-up the instant is played a normal.
Tech journalists: Stop hyping unproven security tools
Monday, July 30, 2012 | Christopher Soghoian
http://paranoia.dubfire.net/2012/07/tech-journalists-stop-hyping-unproven.html
http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Media/Pix/pictures/2010/3/25/1269523445370/Austin-Heap-001.jpg
"Preface: Although this essay compares the media's similar hyping of Haystack and Cryptocat, the tools are, at a technical level, in no way similar. Haystack was at best, snake oil, peddled by a charlatan. Cryptocat is an interesting, open-source tool created by a guy who means well, and usually listens to feedback.
In 2009, media outlets around the world discovered, and soon began to shower praise upon Haystack, a software tool designed to allow Iranians to evade their government's Internet filtering. Haystack was the brainchild of Austin Heap, a San Francisco software developer, who the Guardian described as a "tech wunderkind" with the "know-how to topple governments."
The New York Times wrote that Haystack "makes it near impossible for censors to detect what Internet users are doing." The newspaper also quoted one of the members of the Haystack team saying that "It's encrypted at such a level it would take thousands of years to figure out what youâ(TM)re saying."
Newsweek stated that Heap had "found the perfect disguise for dissidents in their cyberwar against the worldâ(TM)s dictators." The magazine revealed that the tool, which Heap and a friend had in "less than a month and many all-nighters" of coding, was equipped with "a sophisticated mathematical formula that conceals someoneâ(TM)s real online destinations inside a stream of innocuous traffic."
Heap was not content to merely help millions of oppressed Iranians. Newsweek quoted the 20-something developer revealing his long term goal: "We will systematically take on each repressive country that censors its people. We have a list. Donâ(TM)t piss off hackers who will have their way with you.
The Guardian even selected Heap as its Innovator of the Year. The chair of the award panel praised Heap's "vision and unique approach to tackling a huge problem" as well as "his inventiveness and bravery."
This was a feel-good tech story that no news editor could ignore. A software developer from San Francisco taking on a despotic regime in Tehran.
There was just one problem: The tool hadn't been evaluated by actual security experts. Eventually, Jacob Appelbaum obtained a copy of and analyze the software. The results were not pretty -- he described it as "the worst piece of software I have ever had the displeasure of ripping apart."
Soon after, Daniel Colascione, the lead developer of Haystack resigned from the project, saying the program was an example of "hype trumping security." Heap ultimately shuttered Haystack.
After the proverbial shit hit the fan, the Berkman Center's Jillian York wrote:
I certainly blame Heap and his partnersâ"for making outlandish claims about their product without it ever being subjected to an independent security review, and for all of the media whoring theyâ(TM)ve done over the past year.
But I also firmly place blame on the media, which elevated the status of a person who, at best was just trying to help, and a tool which very well could have been a great thing, to the level of a kid genius and his silver bullet, without so much as a call to circumvention experts.
http://blogs-images.forbes.com/jonmatonis/files/2012/07/web_chat.png
Cryptocat: The press is still hypin'
In 2011, Nadim Kobeissi, then a 20 year old college student in Canada started to develop Cryptocat, a web-based secure chat servi
welcome our new simian army overlords
My employer has been doing this for years. We call it "segfaulting".
War, famine, violence, addiction, pollution . . . truly, WE are the Chaos Monkeys!
Now we see the beginning of the Army of the 12 Monkeys. We're doomed ...
MonkeyLives
Cwm, fjord-bank glyphs vext quiz
We don't need Chaos Monkey, we have Summer Intern!
Not only for the idea that a serious company lets a masturbating-and-throwing-poo grinning idiot loose in their sensitive vitals, but also because it draws so many parallels with other resilient systems.
Allergies cured by parasitical worms? Chaos Monkey Effect - you need something attacking your defences for your system to stay healthy
Ecosystem that relies on bushfires to clear old vegetation? Chaos Monkey Effect
Something almost Zen about not only turning an attacker's violence against them, but deliberately introducing new attackers so your system is strengthened by them.
Well done chaps, carry on.
Business/App ideas are like arseholes: everyone's got one, they're mostly shit, but very rarely they contain a diamond
Shouldn't they be focusing on new customers and earnings per share?
Leave it to some java developers to write 100k lines of code to do a shutdown -h now.
Got Code?
at first I was thinking the article was about this chaos monkey.
http://www.wtop.com/681/2859976/Rock-throwing-chimp-plans-complex-attacks-on-visitors
Congrats team, give yourselves a slap in the face!
Except they need to randomly turn off the network connection in their test envronment. It's amazing how many mobile apps assume you'll always have a solid connection and never be in an elevator, or walking between tall buildings, or the basement of a convention center, or any other place with a spotty or overloaded signal.
I didn't tell anyone about the chaos monkey.... Oh. Its just some program. Carry on then.
The media war is getting serious. Chaos Monkeys? How about you get Stars back?
For in politics, as in religion, it is equally absurd to aim at making proselytes by fire and sword. - Publius
"We have found that the best defense against major unexpected failures is to fail often."
In other words, you'll never be disappointed if you expect total incompetence. I've already achieved this same thing on my own with my Netflix account, by completely and utterly lowering my expectations.
Gently reply
Script kiddies are released on the internet to improve security by exploiting unchecked buffers and unsanitized inputs...
Security of information at all time high.
Errrr...
120 characters ought to be enough for anyone
Jeff Atwood has an blog Working with the Chaos Monkey.
When you are sure of something, you probably are wrong (search for "Unskilled and Unaware of It").
Jeffrey Goines and his Army of the 12 Monkeys approves this software release.
than it actually was.
I was picturing a wild, multicolored, gene-spliced ball of fur tearing around, shoving badgers in lion's ears 'n shit.
Fools. They don't know what they did... Let's hope that James Cole makes it, this time.
Chaos Monkey start up get working Chaos Monkey is a hoot Chaos Monkey's preferred new target is instance of a group... (the rest is left as an exercise for Coulton fans)