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.
Asymmetrical warfare (Score:5, Insightful)
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Because cars explode every day, you know.
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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
Re:Asymmetrical warfare (Score:5, Funny)
How do we know you're not in the employ of Putin himself? Answer the question, eldavojohn! Produce your birth certificate!
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Answer the question, eldavojohn! Produce your birth certificate!
How would a birth certificate demonstrate employment?
Someone born in any country in the world could still be working as a Russian agent for Putin.....
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Don't wait for the translation! Answer me now!
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>> 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.
Which is more likely?
* A team of Russian hackers successfully accomplishes X
* A team of Georgian hackers successfully accomplishes X
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Which is more likely?
* A team of Russian hackers successfully accomplishes X
* A team of Georgian hackers successfully accomplishes X
Considering the fact that Russia and Georgia are in a state of enmity that broke out in a shooting war last year, and the 'X' in question is shutting down a blogger who advocates independence for a breakaway region of Georgia, I think I'd go with the latter.
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Well, given that "Cyxymu" is false cyrillic for Sukhumi (the capital of Abkhasia, actually) and that georgian blogger himself chooses to blog in Russian, one shouldn't wonder why it is almost all in Russian there.
Blame the fish (Score:2)
Oh, and don't everyone go check it out at once--we wouldn't want Slashdot blamed for the next DDoS attack on this fellow's account.
No, people would blame Google and Yahoo! when a bunch of American, Canadian, British, Irish, Australian, and New Zealander users start hitting his Twitter page through the Language Tools and Babel Fish pages.
Re:Asymmetrical warfare (Score:4, Funny)
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Oh, believe me....Streisand affects people the world over.... :-)
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...Barbara Streisand is Russian ???
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On Twitter, he was under 400 when this article was published. Now he's at 447. Now, 449 since I started typing.
Have a look to see what he's at now: http://twitter.com/cyxymu [twitter.com]
P.S. Some of it is in English.
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It's called The Streisand Effect, Russia, and it's very real.
IME, countries care significantly less about what others think of them than your average private individual or organisation does.
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The "Streisand Effect, Russia?"
Oh! To be young, and raised in a fat prosperous society where fear is nothing more than fear of social rejection.
URANIDIOT
Honestly, not many. (Score:2)
Lets not exaggerate the issue here. Yeah it sounds good to always bring up the Streisand effect but most need to remember it really only works when the subject is famous. It would be an interesting small bit of research to poll all those who read the story and/or replied to it to see how many could recall the name five minutes after, one hour, or more.
Hell I had to scroll the page back just to know it again.
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How the hell am I supposed to remember a name like "Cyxmu" when I don't even know how to pronounce it?
I'm not doubting your hypothesis, but your research would definitely need one or more control groups trying to remember names of various commonality and complexity in the same context. (Damn! Now that we've talked about it, I'll probably have the name "Cyxmu" burned into my EEPROM)
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No, it's called a 'fad' Hawthorne01, and while real it's also temporary, ineffective, and meaningless. Just like the Iranian 'revolution' of a few weeks back, the only result is a bunch of sound and fury signifying nothing - which will vanish like the morning dew as soon as the 'nets attention is diverted by the next shiny thing.
700 odd followers on Twitter? That and 3
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Disclaimer: No, I don't believe that this is the case. It was just an idea...
Next time it's me (Score:5, Funny)
So if you ever hear of a simultaneous attack on SlashDot and Twitter... that's aimed at me. See, I have accounts on both sites, so clearly...
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And naturally, I would be the first suspect of doing so....
What a country! (Score:5, Funny)
:o) (Score:2)
This is awsome... (Score:5, Funny)
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He's dyslexic.
No way (Score:2, Insightful)
I smell a rat. Big one, whiskers thick as cat5.
Hmmmm (Score:3)
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.
Re:1-Year Anniversay of Russian Invasion of Georgi (Score:4, Informative)
Re:1-Year Anniversay of Russian Invasion of Georgi (Score:5, Informative)
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The big nuclear missiles are on Typhoon class subs [wikipedia.org] that are, presumably, drifting around undetected somewhere in the Barents Sea.
Of course that is except the one which that nice Scottish-accented Lithuanian captain handed over to the US in the early nineties.
Re:1-Year Anniversay of Russian Invasion of Georgi (Score:5, Informative)
Odd, CNN had reported they were Akula-Class Attack submarines and specifically pointed out that they did not carry nuclear warheads. I think this article is sensationalizing the fact that they are nuclear-powered by using the more vague term "nuclear-armed" in order to make people think that they're boomers.
If the location of Russian Boomers was world news while on patrol they wouldn't be a show of force they'd be a sign of weakness as the whole point is you have to fear either a first strike without time to respond or a retaliatory strike from a target you can't take out in your first strike because you can't find it.
Knowledge of where that launch platform is (which means you can bet your ass it'd being shadowed by an attack sub of our own) would invalidate the threat.
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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.
Whoa! I better put on my tinfoil hat before continuing to follow the linked article!
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Are you sure Russia attacked first? According to my own understanding of the situation, it's Georgia that invaded South Ossetia, a territory that declared independence from Georgia since the mid-1990's and has many Russian citizens within its territory. You can understand Russia's interest in those two territories.
So it's not as simple as declaring "Georgia's territory is sacrosanct therefore Georgia should be united".
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Damned if you do, damned if you don't though...
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Re:1-Year Anniversay of Russian Invasion of Georgi (Score:3, Funny)
According to a report by the "Times Online" and another report by guardian.co.uk", today is the 1-year anniversary of the Russian invasion of Georgia.
Aug 8 Dustin Hoffman born in Los Angeles, 1937
Aug 8 Montenegro declares war on Germany, 1914
Aug 8 Richard Nixon resigns the US presidency, 1974
Aug 8 The Great Train Robbery -- $7,368,000, 1963
The above suggests to me that it's American Neocons seeking to regain the power of the presidency, working in conjunction with Serbian terrorists angry at their M
Emergency! (Score:2)
a pair of Russian submarines loaded with nuclear missiles were recently patrolling off the East Coast of the United States
and hilarity ensued!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qOZuLD1u_K4 [youtube.com]
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nuke twitter? (Score:2)
you think they were gonna nuke twitter servers
One could only hope...
Nashi? (Score:2, Informative)
Slashdot Effect (Score:5, Funny)
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
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In Iran (and many other failed states), no external force is imposing the current brutal government on the Iranians. The folks running the government are Iranian. The president is Iranian. The secret police are Iranian. The thugs who will torture and kill democracy advocates are Iranian.
Actually, there is significant evidence that many of the thugs who torture and kill democracy advocates in Iran are imported from outside of Iran (in particular members of Hezbollah from Lebanon and Syria).
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.
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It's an interesting theory, but when I think to myself, "Who is more likely to have the resources to pull off a massive distributed-denial-of-service attack against multiple large websites, a single Ukrainian blogger or the Russian government?", the latter seems the more likely candidate.
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a single Ukrainian blogger
Georgian.
And I'm sure they'd like you to believe it's just a single blogger.
False logic for fingering the "target" (Score:3, Funny)
>had accounts on all of the different sites that were attacked at the same time
That pretty much describes a large number of users that use YouTwitFace. Maybe YouTwitFace was the target...
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Oblig (Score:2, Insightful)
$Obligatory comment on the uselessness and irrelevance of Twitter.
Information wants to be free... (Score:3, Insightful)
And tyrants as always don't much like anyone else's freedom.
All the more reason to oppose tyranny. Wherever it is found.
Now to get the Internet to recognize tyranny as damage and route around it...
Perfect storm? (Score:2)
Correlation = Causation now? (Score:2)
I'm sure there's some small-town nobody somewhere in the continental us, or some native in the northwest territories who also has accounts on these sites.
OMG russia is after THEM!!!
Did anyone else read that (Score:2)
Did anyone else read "Cyxymu" as "Sexy Moo"
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"Cyxymu" is actually a Russian word "Sukhumi" written using Latin symbols which are written almost like Cyrillic letters.
C is "S"
"y" is "u" as in "zulu"
"x" is "kh"
"m" is "m"
"u" is "ee"
Twitter is always down (Score:2)
Oh come one, how do they know it was an attack against twitter? Twitter is always down - they run their server on one 286 and server it via a ZyXEL 56K Data/Fax Modem - if two people on the planet happen to log into twitter at the same time the site fries!
Re:Just like rs79 said yesterday (Score:5, Insightful)
Some people didn't like what was posted to twitter in the past 24 hours and had other people take it down. It's a distraction. Scrutinize what happened before it down and not the distraction of it going down and you'll have your answer.
Wasn't yesterday the anniversary of the Russian military incursion in South Ossetia in Georgia? Perhaps after Twitter's widespread involvement with the events in Iran, certain political elements didn't want it happening there as well?
Re:Just like rs79 said yesterday (Score:5, Informative)
Well, technically they went in after repeatedly telling the Georgians to stop fucking with the south ossetians. Obviously there is more to it than this but for those of us who actually followed the events leading up to the russian forces entering south ossetia it's painfully obvious that most people only noticed something was going on when western media outlets began pumping out "Russia invades Georgia!", "$POLITICIAN says Russian attack on Georgia worse than nazi atrocities" and similar headlines.
/Mikael
Re:Just like rs79 said yesterday (Score:5, Informative)
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If we use the word "Ossetian" to signify an ethnic group, yes, you are right. If we use the word to signify the residents of the region, you are only partly right.
Try this site: http://ossetians.com/eng/ [ossetians.com] Browse around. Look at the number of Russian army generals, and later, the number of "Heros of the Soviet". Whether we are discussing the ethnic group, or the territory, Ossetians have a long and rich relationship with Russia.
Be sure to hit some of the links on this page: http://ossetians.com/eng/index [ossetians.com]
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So? You could say the same just about any ethnic group both in the Russian Federation and former USSR, doesn't justify them playing big brother. My country has 28% Russians, does that mean we have to let Putin dictate our lives? And fuck Russia fro playing number games too, Russian-speaking != Russian.
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 th
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You really should study Russian history, from the Russian perspective. For starters, can you tell us, without googling, how many times Russia has been invaded in the past? Invaded, and defeated, it's people enslaved, murdered, and starved? In fact, starvation in Russia is an ever present spectre - America's spendthrift and wasteful habits combined with American attitudes about freedom and liberty would be fatal to the Russian people.
Here's a stratfor link, from which you might browse around, and glean ad
right (Score:4, Insightful)
because pre-soviet history allows for excusing any crimes russia commits
additionally, america does bad things. therefore, its ok for russia to do bad things
Re:right (Score:5, Insightful)
Still to black and white. There isn't a "right" and a "wrong" side in every issue. You can bet your ass though, that there are always multiple political sides to every issue, all of which are probably "wrong".
If you cannot condemn American actions when they are obviously done for selfish reasons (operation Ajax?) then you can't condemn Russian actions when they are done for what you consider to be selfish reasons.
Georgia being under discussion here, it is easy to compare Russian intervention on behalf of ethnic Russians (many of whom carried dual citizenship, by the way) to the United States intervention in Beirut City in 1978 to rescue American nationals. We didn't want to see Americans killed in 78, Russia didn't want to see Russians killed last year. Same-o same-o.
Maybe not pertinent to this conversation, I was awarded my first Humanitarian Service Award for participating in the evacuation of Beirut. Maybe that helps understand my perspective, maybe not. But, I can see right and wrong on the part of the Russians, just as I can see right and wrong on our part. We ain't lily-white, and they ain't deep-space black.
your thinking is so pathetic (Score:2, Insightful)
how does responsibility and accountability work?
you take stock of events, and you admit where you have done wrong
but there is an alternative line of thought, that losers engages in, which is: you take stock of events, and you explain away everything as completely not your fault
"If you cannot condemn American actions when they are obviously done for selfish reasons (operation Ajax?) then you can't condemn Russian actions when they are done for what you consider to be selfish reasons."
what the hell does that
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?
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Thank you, thank you, thank you, for your insightful comments. Rant, actually. Insightful rant. You have provided insight into your mind, to be honest.
Perhaps, now that you have finished with your tantrum, you will provide a list of crimes committed by RUSSIA. Today's Russia, that is. Not the old Soviet, but today's Russia. You have blathered on and on about this and that, you have avoided comparing Russia to anything or anyone else, and you seem to believe that Russia is evil. Got evidence? Citatio
Re:how would you react (Score:4, Funny)
That's rather like studying Scientology from L. Ron Hubbards perspective.
your deflections are so typical and predictable (Score:5, Insightful)
"america does bad things. therefore, its ok for russia to do bad things"
assume america is the most bloodthirsty, vile evil empire that ever existed in the history of the world
ok
in what way does this validate anything bad russia does?
"well see my neighbor, he stabbed his wife to death. therefore when i cut your arm off, that's excuseable"
very shallow efforts at rationalization, no?
a strong people are a people who can engage in self-criticism and take criticism from others. in fact, this is probably the most effective metric for true strength in the world, on any issue, from individuals to entire nations
so you have criticisms of the usa? good, fine, lets hear them. i welcome your criticisms. the usa is not perfect. i have plenty of problems with american behavior too. i spit on the gw bush administration. i recognize every subject of american aggression you raise in your comment and a whole bunch more you didn't mention
and now, guess what... its your turn. let us hear YOU criticize russia. let us hear you address my criticisms of russia. directly, rather than deflecting my words back emptily: "well, america is bad too, so you can't criticize"
what is this, kindergarten? are you 5 years old?
is it impossible for a russian to self-criticize or hear criticism of russia?
do you think this is a sign of strength on your part?
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sorry (Score:2)
bored IT guy
yelling at strangers on teh intarwebs is a calm idyllic diversion, no?
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yelling at strangers on teh intarwebs is a calm idyllic diversion, no?
It's the life of Zen.
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russia is engaging in neoimperialism? What about USA my friend? Why don't you look at recent 60 years old history and lets count how many countries USA has invaded and how many has Russia? Need we even mention Iraq, Afganistan, constantly bombing Pakistan etc etc etc? you are truly a pathetic idiot or a total shill. I feel sorry for your severely limited view of the world.
You seem to be using secondary definitions of invasion that don't apply to the concept of imperialism. The primary definition, "incursion of an army for conquest or plunder," does apply to imperialism, and is not something America has engaged in for quite some time. You cite Iraq and Afghanistan as examples of American imperialism, yet in what way have we come to conquer or plunder? If conquest was our aim, why would we enable them to set up their own democratic government rather than claiming them as a
Re:Just like rs79 said yesterday (Score:4, Informative)
Well, technically they went in after repeatedly telling the Georgians to stop fucking with the south ossetians.
If that's your attitude then I certainly hope that you are in favor of the Taiwanese, Basque, and Tamil Tigers having their independence. South Ossetia was part of Georgia before the Russians went in there and took it away from them. You may regard what they did as justifiable (I honestly don't know enough to form a conclusion one way or another) but it seems dishonest to say that the Georgians were "fucking with" them without also noting that South Ossetia was a part of Georgia.
Re:Just like rs79 said yesterday (Score:4, Informative)
I would go even further - the logic exposed by the grand-parent can be used to justify the liberation of Chechnya, since it's population is clearly being oppressed by Russia, including killing of tens of thousands of Chechnya's residents and the installation of a murderous (just recently another journalist critical of the government was murdered) and oppressive puppet-government.
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A newsflash:
CHECHNYA WAS GIVEN A FUCKING INDEPENDENCE!
Yes, you read it correctly. Moscow gave Chechnya a de-facto independence after the Budenovsk massacre. Read about it: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khasav-Yurt_Accord [wikipedia.org]
Moscow had zero power in Checnya after signing this accord. As a result, Chechens performed public executions in Grozny, kidnapped people for ransom, etc.
And three years later Chechens invaded a neighbor region (Dagestan). That's how the Second Chechen War started.
So, please, read history.
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I certainly hope that you are in favor of the Taiwanese, Basque, and Tamil Tigers having their independence
Will it be impolite of me if I add Kosovar Albanians to this list?
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Well, to be fair, the Russians WERE telling the Georgian government to "stop fucking with" South Ossetia and Abkhasia. Whether they were justified in doing that is an entirely different matter, but the facts are that the Russian government took the position that the Georgian government was no longer the sovereign in that piece of land, and acted on that.
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As I said, I don't know enough about the history of the region to form a conclusion on who is "right" and "wrong". There's been so much propaganda on both sides that it's hard to know what to believe. I do know that South Ossetia was "given" to the Georgians as a "gift" by Stalin, so it's not at all surprising that the people there might not want to be ruled by Tbilisi. On the other hand I get pretty concerned when states intervene in the internal affairs of another and redraw it's borders at gunpoint.
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I was wondering that too, surely there are a number of people all members of those groups. I'd expect people that are members of two or more to be members of most.
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I was wondering that too, surely there are a number of people all members of those groups. I'd expect people that are members of two or more to be members of most.
Well yeah they have to feed their self-importance, narcissism, delusions of grandeur, attention whoring, or exhibitionistic tendencies SOMEHOW.
Wait, that's not this "Cyxymu" guy? No wonder they are trying to shut him down then. He stands out too much!
Re:The only one? (Score:4, Interesting)
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Or a good scapegoat for being so open about his views on Georgia
Re:fp (Score:4, Funny)
Well its kind of badass to be the sole purpose some of the world's largest websites got beaten offline.. Aww who am I kidding, the jerk from high school still wins.
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Wait - they can't figure out who the guy is in meatspace based on Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, and blogs, but have the ability to take down a number of the world's largest websites? Sites that are designed for massive usage?
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A great DDoS attack is just as you say, thousands and thousands of requests to access one page. Heck, not even a page, you could attack just a single file or image on a page.
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Chief security officer. Gee, I dunno, he must be pulling his facts out of his ass, eh, with a title like that?
That wasn't the point. I'd just wanted to know what had led him to say that, since I always think of a DDoS attack as being against a server, not a user. After posting, I found other news articles that clarified. The answer turns out to be the obvious one:
"[...]a botnet was directed to request his pages at such a rate that it impacted service for other users."
- Facebook spokesman to BBC news (source [bbc.co.uk]).
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HTTP Access log?
Well, yeah. :-) But what would he be looking for in it? That's what I'd wanted to know. The answer turns out to basically be the obvious one:
"Specifically, the person is an activist blogger and a botnet was directed to request his pages at such a rate that it impacted service for other users."
- Facebook spokesman to BBC news. (source [bbc.co.uk]).