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We have an acceptable use policy and their job is make sure that our customers are protected, making sure that we comply with regulations around the world and making sure that we protect our brand.
PayPal’s VP of Platform Osama Bedier • Explaining why his company chose to block Wikileaks. Simply put, they read the State Department’s letter to Wikileaks saying what they were doing was illegal, they decided to block the site on those grounds. Bedier also noted that he isn’t fazed by threats of an Anonymous DDoS attack: “One of the signs that you’re a successful payments company is that hackers start to target you,” he saild. “This case isn’t anything different.” This topic was unpopular with the European conference he was talking to, BTW. It’s also important to note that a letter from the State Department is not a legal decision. source

Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

08 Dec 2010 10:10

You inconsiderate bastards. Have you considered that people besides you (or the people you’re trying to attack) use this service? That this social networking stuff is actually a resource, not a toy? That these tools have wide-ranging uses beyond your limited scope? Admittedly, we shouldn’t simply be upset at those distributing a denial of service attack. Twitter has some significant scalability issues that make it vulnerable to attacks like these. But still, jerks. Screw you. The internet isn’t your toy. source

Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

It’s unusual to see an attack on a site lasting that long. Generally there are procedures in place in case of such an attack, but unfortunately Twitter has a long history of security-related issues and this really shows that they are not very mature in this area yet.
Kaspersky Lab malware researcher Stefan Tanase • About the attack, which nailed a number of other big social media sites besides Twitter (Facebook, YouTube and LiveJournal) but only gave Twitter sustained fits and starts. Why did it happen in the first place? One researcher, Bill Woodcock, suggests that social networking got caught between the Russia/Georgia conflict: “One side put up propaganda, the other side figured this out and is attacking them.” • source

Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

This is not something that your average ‘script kitty’ can do. On the other hand it doesn’t require it to be state-sponsored.
Security expert Mark Rasch • Who’s currently of SecureITExperts and led the Department of Justice’s computer crimes unit during the George H.W. Bush administration. Rasch raised doubts over whether it was a definite slam dunk that these attacks, which hit major financial, government and media sites in the U.S., came from a North Korean source. At this time, we’d like to point your attention to this Wired article from back in the day about the Estonian denial of service attacks. This graphic in particular provides some good explanation about what’s happening now. • source

Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink