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GitHub under ongoing DDoS attack

status.github.com

201–210 of 352 posts

Re: GitHub under ongoing DDoS attack

#201

Interestingly enough, if the attacks never stop (which is a possibility), the engineers at GitHub might still come up with a way to effectively nullify DDOS and continue their normal operations. Which would be a massive advance in cyberdefense. It's unlikely, but it would be a great example of "natural selection" (via their intelligent engineers' efforts) at work. It will no doubt take ingenuity, but I don't think an…

Nullifying DDOS doesn't take ingenuity, it takes a big wallet, which Github no doubt has, but let's not pretend that its some engineering feat. If it was, a small company being ddosed would have a chance at fending it off all the same, but that's just simply not the case.

Re: GitHub under ongoing DDoS attack

#202

The github service is nice, but do you really want to put your [code|website|etc] somewhere that can become inaccessible if some [person|group|criminal|government] decides they don't like something about it?

What service wouldn't be susceptible to such an attack? The only way to avoid it would be to not put your [code|website|etc] on the internet. That seems a bit extreme.

Re: GitHub under ongoing DDoS attack

#203

The github service is nice, but do you really want to put your [code|website|etc] somewhere that can become inaccessible if some [person|group|criminal|government] decides they don't like something about it?

Yes. The nature of git means this has not stopped our workflow. Just because we can't update a central source doesn't mean we can't continue to get things done. Also, if a large enough entity doesn't like what you're doing, you're better off putting your code in Github/Bitbucket/etc because chances are you can't mitigate a DDoS of this scale by yourself.

Re: GitHub under ongoing DDoS attack

#204

Why can't GitHub just serve up pages with javascript that causes the user to re-attack the source of the initial attacks?

Or mine bitcoins for them on the attacking user's machine, to pay for the increased bandwidth. (Probably hard to do it in a way that wouldn't backfire in some way or another, but the idea still makes me smile).

Donate those bitcoins to groups that deal with the GFW

Re: GitHub under ongoing DDoS attack

#206
post #164

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are you really serious? Adblocking is trivial and does not require government censorship. And how does allowing access to Google let them rule the world?

I think you miss my point. As I see it, the Chinese government are basically blocking Google as a business decision. Take a look at Baidu. You will be amazed at the number of services they offer. On the roads in China you see a lot of Audis and Mercedes. These are mostly driven by Government officials. There are many avenues for Government officials to earn money. I don't know the size of companies like Baidu and Ali…

Your 2 statements has nothing to do with each other. Here take another 50 cent.

Re: GitHub under ongoing DDoS attack

#207
post #168

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This might be part of the attribution: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9275381

Thanks, so if I understand well, every js gotten from baidu cdn from outside China has a malicious code attacking github. Weird. It could be some test gone wrong, but I still don't buy Chinese gov attacking purposely and openly github like that. It's like showing your one time secret weapon way too early and on some wrong target. Or maybe it's a way to make some big noise to the left while the real target is discrete…

> It could be some test gone wrong... Or maybe [misdirection]

There's a MITM injecting malicious javascript causing a prolonged DDoS for several days now. There have been times in the past where BGP "misconfigurations" have redirected large amounts of internet traffic, and we used to think, oh, Hanlon's razor, now we know better.

What convinces me this is not Hanlon is the precisely targeted nature and significant duration of the attack. Whoever controls these servers and routers knows this is happening and wants it to happen.

Re: GitHub under ongoing DDoS attack

#208

Interestingly enough, if the attacks never stop (which is a possibility), the engineers at GitHub might still come up with a way to effectively nullify DDOS and continue their normal operations. Which would be a massive advance in cyberdefense. It's unlikely, but it would be a great example of "natural selection" (via their intelligent engineers' efforts) at work. It will no doubt take ingenuity, but I don't think an…

Nullifying DDOS doesn't take ingenuity, it takes a big wallet, which Github no doubt has, but let's not pretend that its some engineering feat. If it was, a small company being ddosed would have a chance at fending it off all the same, but that's just simply not the case.

I'm not well-versed in the technical details of defending from DDOS, but unless it's a mathematical NP-complete problem, they have a chance.

Re: GitHub under ongoing DDoS attack

#210
post #153

Hi, foreigner working in Chinese high tech company here. I wonder a bit, on which ground is this attack attributed to Chinese gov? It looks a bit unlikely to me. China has some cyber military but they are more likely to be pragmatic and choose wisely their targets. There's a bunch of script kiddies but they would choose also something else. However it seems possible that many servers hosted in China are not secured a…

The official cyber force of China is not the biggest suspect in most attacks like this. The loosely controlled civilian hacker force (think privateer pirates) launch most ddos-style attacks on foreign soil.
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