Twitter, Facebook DDoS Attack Targeted One User 205
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.
Re:Asymmetrical warfare (Score:2, Interesting)
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.
Russia? How do you know it's Russia? I've read only the CNET article but my first thoughts were that if Cyxymu wanted to validate himself, he would organize this DDoS against himself. Assuming (s)he is a real person and not some puppet account set up by the region that wants independence that attacked itself to gain legitimacy. I mean, Russia and Georgia probably would have coordinated this with other attacks/raids on the poor soul if he existed, right? My theory is just as realistic as any other until we get more facts on who is claiming responsibility for this. How do you know that these attacks weren't carried out expecting the Streisand effect?
1-Year Anniversay of Russian Invasion of Georgia (Score:4, Interesting)
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 [guardian.co.uk] loaded with nuclear missiles were recently patrolling off the East Coast of the United States is not a coincidence.
It also targeted Iranian reformist accounts (Score:4, Interesting)
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
Fake Streisand? (Score:2, Interesting)
It occurs to me that if you're saying something important, and want people to see it, the best way on the internet is to manufacture a Streisand Effect on yourself. Pretend that someone wants to muffle you. And do it by crashing major sites.
Not saying that's what happened here, but it's definitely a possibility.
Re:The only one? (Score:4, Interesting)
how would you react (Score:2, Interesting)
if the usa invaded isla de la juventud?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isla_de_la_Juventud [wikipedia.org]
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 [wikipedia.org]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Litvinenko_poisoning [wikipedia.org]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viktor_Yushchenko#Dioxin_poisoning_controversy [wikipedia.org]
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/ [washingtontimes.com]
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
Re:your thinking is so pathetic (Score:4, Interesting)
"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""
Bullshit. This is not what I said.
"no, idiot: america does plenty of bad things. russia does plenty of bad things. you admit to them."
When? Taking operation Ajax, for example, when has the US ever said, "Hey, Iran, we're sorry for fucking your lives up - how can we help make things right?" President Obama sort of hinted at a near apology, recently. As a rule, the US does NOT admit to anything, period.
The Katyn massacre? I fail to see exactly how the actions of the Soviet relate to actions by today's Russia relate, exactly. The Soviet failed, remember? It crumbled, it's gone. Nowhere, in all my writings and ramblings have I EVER defended the Soviet, or any of it's actions that tended to subjugate people. Murder is murder, yes, but can you point to instances of murder commited by today's Russia?
"you don't have any intellectual honesty"
You, on the other hand, don't have any honesty at all, intellectual or otherwise, to take my statements, and read into them all that you have read into them.
"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"
Wake up, dude. You will find that the vast majority of Americans simply accept that America is good, and Russia is evil. Most of those Americans have no concept of what Russia is.
You want me to criticize Russia and it's people? Easy. There are thousands of instances of criminally insane actions committed by the Soviet, beginning with genocidal purges within Russia, purges of the intelligentsia within Russia, and political purges within Russia. The Katyn massacre that you refer to was "business as usual" for the Soviet. It was no more, and no less, horrible than sending millions of people into exile in Siberia for offenses ranging from petty theft, to being descended from royalty, to voicing an opinion, or even hoarding bread crusts bought on the black market.
I'm aware of wrongs commited by Russians, at least as much as I'm aware of American wrongs. After all, they are trumpeted far and wide by our media. It's the wrongs that we try to cover up that concern me more.
I thank you for your rant, though. Obviously, I got under your skin. Now - do you even understand what Operation Ajax was all about, and what the consequences were? How about the Bay of Pigs fiasco? And, the CIA's operation with a shot up boat that got us involved in Vietnam? How many of our own sins are you aware of, and willing to admit guilt for?
Re:1-Year Anniversay of Russian Invasion of Georgi (Score:1, Interesting)
To make things even more confusing, apparently the Soviet's refer to the Typhoon class as Akula.
From the wiki: "Note that Akula ("shark") is the Soviet designation of the ballistic missile submarine class designated by NATO as the Typhoon class submarine."