[liberationtech] Avaaz Cyber Attack Ends After 44 Hours

[Yosem Companys]

https://secure.avaaz.org/act/media.php?press_id=321

*Friday 4th May, 2012*

 *Avaaz Cyber Attack Ends After 44 Hours *

 *A Distributed Denial of Service attack on the Avaaz website ended after
44 hours yesterday. Initial inquiries suggest the attack was a 'call of
duty' attack using old gaming protocols to turn thousands of computers into
stations from which to launch the DDoS effort. The scale of the attack was
equivalent to 20 times Avaaz's highest traffic in its history. The Avaaz
site went down twice, but only for a total of 14 minutes. Avaaz campaigning
was temporarily suspended. *

*"We're thrilled that our system held up well even under a very large
attack" said Avaaz Executive Director Ricken Patel. "It's a testament to
the amazing systems we've been able to build with the support of our
membership."  *

*Alex Reppen, founder and CEO of Datagram, the firm providing hosting and
support to the Avaaz site said "This is one of the largest attacks we've
seen on one of our clients, and we're proud of having been able to protect
Avaaz from serious disruption."*

*The FBI has been informed of the attack.*

 *"We don't know who did this, but we've been told that it’s likely a
sophisticated source" added Ricken Patel. Alex Reppen said, "This was a
really sustained attack. Forty-four hours without giving up once was pretty
incredible." *

*When site functioning was assured, Avaaz asked its membership for
donations<https://secure.avaaz.org/en/massive_attack_on_avaaz_a/?pr>to
help improve security. "When we heard that even larger attacks were
possible, and that preparing for them would cost money, we asked our
membership for help, and got an amazing response within hours"  said Patel.
*

*ENDS*
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