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Reddit is currently experiencing a malicious DDoS attack

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Re: Reddit is currently experiencing a malicious DDoS attack

#61

Post by danso »

GHFigs wrote: post #45
krcz wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Actually posts containing speculations about Sunil (missing student) were instantaneously deleted (as groundless and potentially harmful) , at least before name appeared on police scanner, at least on r/findbostonbombers. Info was spread somewhere else, because new people constantly were creating ones.

before name appeared on police scanner Is there a recording of this? Because it sounds a lot like it never happened.

No, this happened. A purported classmate of Sunil's had tweeted about the resemblance to Suspect #2 about 14 hours ago:

> @christiiinaaaxo @jaredleesmith @thejman218 Looks just like a kid from my area that went missing exactly a month and has yet to be found.

> I mean maybe it's a total coincidence but I'm more than a little freaked out by the resemblance. #Boston pic.twitter.com/Qsd6rj5v5l

At some point, the Internet ran with her speculation:

> It makes me sad that people are going to the Tripathi family Facebook page and writing nasty things. That was never my intention

And at around 4-5 am, the Boston police scanners said they were looking for Sunil. I remember this because I fell asleep at 5am thinking that this bizarre story involved Sunil and then woke up at 8 learning that two completely different suspects had been identified. From the twitterer:

> So if what I'm hearing is correct, at 3 AM when the police scanners said they had their suspect and it was Sunil, I was wrong.

The tweeter's account is now protected but she hasn't deleted her tweets. I think everyone, including her, has learned a little about making well-intentioned speculation on the Internet. But apparently, even the Boston police had been fooled (at least someone in the BPD was, which is why police scanners should not be taken as gospel)

Re: Reddit is currently experiencing a malicious DDoS attack

#63

Post by bjhoops1 »

facorreia wrote: post #58
darkarmani wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I hope this is a retaliation for the abhorrent behaviour of reddit users You don't like vigilantes, but you hope vigilantes are punishing reddit users?

Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?

"Who watches the watchmen" would have been simpler and spared me a google search.

Re: Reddit is currently experiencing a malicious DDoS attack

#64

Post by jayrobin »

SnydenBitchy wrote: post #57
RobotCaleb wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

of some reddit users. FTFY. Let's not smear everybody in your blanket statement.

The voting majority of reddit users.

while I was quite shocked by the witch-hunt and amount of 'suspicious until proven innocent' I saw in that subreddit, in fairness to reddit as a whole that is one small subreddit among thousands.

Also, some of the highest upvoted threads and comments appear to be warning others of the potential negative consequences of their publicly pointing out everyone with a backpack or different coloured skin.

Re: Reddit is currently experiencing a malicious DDoS attack

#67

Post by salimmadjd »

alienth wrote: post #29
jordn wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What are the indicators that this is a malicious DDoS attack rather than just unprecedented traffic from interest in the Boston manhunt? Also, what reason is there for a DDoS attack on Reddit right now?

They're slamming over 20x our normal bandwidth with URL containing things such as "boston", "your_gay", etc.

Maybe government doesn't want redditers countering their official narrative regarding the suspects

Re: Reddit is currently experiencing a malicious DDoS attack

#68

Post by Retric »

josteink wrote: post #54
UnoriginalGuy wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, as opposed to a non-malicious one. The best example off the top of my head was a D-Link firmware update which added an NTP server operated by a third party for "public use." This wound up increasing the NTP server's traffic by 90% and costing them over $8K/year in additional bandwidth fees. See [1]. Then you have so called "slashdotting." Or linking to a small web-site with an interesting story and overloading i…

Getting a slashdotting is not a "DDOS attack" under any definition although the practical consequence is the same. If the resulting traffic overload is caused by a (massive) router-configuration error or similar mishaps, it's also by definition not an attack. Sorry about being picky around semantics, but still: No point in throwing words around to the point where they become completely pointless.

There is no inherent requirement that attacks need to be intentional. It's possible for a software glitch to launch a missile attack. Attack: An aggressive and violent action against a person or place

Re: Reddit is currently experiencing a malicious DDoS attack

#69

Post by bjhoops1 »

sgdesign wrote: post #65
bjhoops1 wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Who watches the watchmen" would have been simpler and spared me a google search.

But I wouldn't have learned a cool new latin proverb.

Although it should be noted that the Latin itself is a translation, since this quote is attributed to Socrates and would have originally been in Greek.
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