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Library of Congress Hit With a Denial-Of-Service Attack (fedscoop.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the repetitiously-refreshing dept.

An anonymous reader writes: The Library of Congress (LOC) announced via Twitter Monday that they were the target of a denial-of-service attack. The attack was detected on July 17 and has caused other websites hosted by the LOC, including the U.S. Copyright Office, to go down. In addition, employees of the Library of Congress were unable to access their work email accounts and to visit internal websites. The outages continue to affect some online properties managed by the library. "In June 2015, the Government Accountability Office, or GAO, published a limited distribution report -- undisclosed publicly though it was sourced in a 2015 GAO testimony to the Committee on House Administration -- highlighting digital security deficiencies apparent at the Library of Congress, including poor software patch management and firewall protections," reports FedScoop.

23 comments

  1. proof of concept by turkeydance · · Score: 1

    for an LOC day off

  2. Unitz by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    There must be a 100% funny comment about units out there, but it's beyond my grasp in this time and state.
    Surprise me !

    1. Re: Unitz by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Oh no, people can't check out books!

  3. Losers by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    It's probably the intersection of /b/tards and /pol/cucks who can't handle the idea a black woman becoming Librarian of Congress. Whoever it is needs to spend less time attacking a library and more time in one.

  4. why? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I'm gonna have to guess it was just really really awful unpatched machine holes and automated pentesters that caused it, because I can't image a logical reason why someone might want to do such a thing on purpose. So pointless.

    1. Re:why? by bobbied · · Score: 1

      Press coverage and it's a challenge (of sorts), that's why. Why climb Everest? These days the shurpas pretty much carry everything for you...

      --
      "File to fit, pound to insert, paint to match" - Aircraft Maintenance 101
    2. Re:why? by jellomizer · · Score: 1

      Some historians estimate the burning of the Library of Alexandria, had set back mankind 500 years of progress moving the power and influence of the dominant culture's influence away from an academic control to the more physical control of thoses who are the better warrior wins power.

      As technology and knowledges advances our culture adapts to reflect these changes. The Library of Congress is considered a great wealth of knowledge. Is a way to show the angst that some people have with the changes in our culture. "We will show those Egg Heads!" Mantaility.

      While this incident probably didn't do much. However if sparks more attacks against other sources of knowledge. Our Power source in the world would change back to the more the strongest wins mentality.
      As we can see with the Trump Supporters who feel that The United States has the Worlds most Powerful Army seems to put itself in its own disadvantage because we don't want to use it. And much rather setup trade deals and turn a blind eye to some things.
      When asked we give a complex answer because it is a complex situation. Where most people just wants a simple solution where you go agree with us or face the consequences. (Which often will have long term effects afterwords)

      --
      If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
  5. LOC, meet LOIC by Rujiel · · Score: 1

    nt

  6. finally, the answer we've been waiting for by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    How many libraries of congress of data per second does it take to take down the library of congress?

    1. Re:finally, the answer we've been waiting for by Tablizer · · Score: 1

      How many libraries of congress of data per second does it take to take down the library of congress?

      The simulation blew its stack in the "Turtles" aisle.

      (No, that's not a Mitch McConnell joke.)

      --
      Table-ized A.I.
  7. Not just a denial of service, by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    No! This was a cyber attack! We must rally our cyber warriors to battle these evil cyber villains. Cyber space is a very dangerous place, the cyber clouds are raining cyber blood. Only the fiercest cyber fighters can leverage the IoT and bring us to cyber victory.
    So, let's unite our cyber powers. All who are willing to join, let me know. I am 3D printing us some uniforms, they will only take about 3 months a piece..... for the buttons.

    1. Re:Not just a denial of service, by TroII · · Score: 0

      Aight, I put on my robe and wizard hat.

      --
      "If there was a gay Afro-Puertorican Linux distribution, I'd give it a try" ~lucm
    2. Re:Not just a denial of service, by rmdingler · · Score: 1
      I find it incredible your moniker was still available.

      Regarding GP, how hard up would we need to get to use the fear of eminent disaster by cyber attack in our population control propaganda?

      Like, already using disenchanted members of third world nations with no standing armies or nuclear capability against the most well-funded military the World has ever known?

      --
      Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know.

      Ernest Hemingway

  8. Oh No! by frovingslosh · · Score: 1

    OMG! A DoS on the Library of Congress! What has this world come to? How can we survive? The humanity! I'm just going to go and kill myself now, I don't want to live in a world like this!

    --
    I'm an American. I love this country and the freedoms that we used to have.
    1. Re:Oh No! by Coren22 · · Score: 1

      And nothing of value was lost. /s

      --
      APK likes to ask for responses to the same things over and over. Maybe he just likes the responses?
  9. So how much information was affected? by Punto · · Score: 4, Funny

    How much information was taken down by this attack? Could you put it in an amount that us normal people can relate too?

    --

    --
    Stay tuned for some shock and awe coming right up after this messages!

    1. Re:So how much information was affected? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It's very difficult to put something like that in day to day terms. If only there were some convenient unit we could use.

    2. Re:So how much information was affected? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      About 3 football stadiums.

  10. Turkish government vs. Wikileaks? by Ungrounded+Lightning · · Score: 1

    I wonder if the Library of Congress is involved with publishing the Wikileaks email data-dump on the pre-coup activities and post-coup purges the Turkish government is trying to suppress by DOSing them?

    Or if the Turkish government personnel THINK it is involved?

    --
    Bantam Dominique roosters crow a four-note song. Once you've heard it as "Happy BIRTHday" you can't NOT hear it that way
  11. Attack speed? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    How fast is the DDoS, in LoC/s?

  12. Surreal by RabidReindeer · · Score: 1

    "The Library of Congress announced via Twitter ..."

  13. Copyright office? by CanEHdian · · Score: 2

    LOC = US Copyright Office.

    The LOC has this nice 'jukebox' with sound recordings from the 1900s, over 110 years old, nicely reminding us that it is illegal download them because of 'state copyright laws'. Yeah, no joke.

    Our copyright friends are trying to get the copyright office out from under the LOC control, probably because it'll be easier to get it under their own control.

    Among her priorities will be the modernisation of the US Copyright Office IT system and trying to define the role of the USCO with the Library. There have been calls from stakeholders, including from the current Register of Copyrights Maria Pallante, to move the Office outside of the realm of the Library and establish it as an stand-alone government agency.

    Source

    So who knows, maybe Dr. Hayden was seen golfing with Chris Dodd and Joe Biden?

    --
    When the copyright term is "forever minus a day", live every day like it's the last.
  14. solution by micahraleigh · · Score: 1

    And that is exactly why tax payers need to throw all kinds of new funds at redundant cyberwarfare departments