Using a nuclear bomb to swat a fly…
So the word is out.
Twitter, FaceBook, and LiveJournal were collateral damage in a hugely overkill bot-net attack many of us felt directly. I originally mentioned the media’s ineptitude in accuracy and profound expertise in unnecessary speculation was comic HERE.
Some script-kiddies with political motive and a little access to a botnet were after one guy.
…yes…the target was ONE GUY.
This time however…the news has decided to restrain themselves on the crazy speculation and started listening to the real pros…
A professor in Georgia apparently was doing something in the way of building a documentary of personal views of events preceding the current tension/issues prevalent between Georgia and Russia. Someone obviously didnt like it…since they fubarified Google’s Blogspot, Facebook. Twitter, and LiveJournal. According to the articles…they are still actually under an attack.
Now here’s where the LameSauce comes into play.
*To all the “businesses” that are 100% dependent or based on Twitter’s communication framework. You’re idiots. You get no sympathy from the IT world. This is like taking money from people to show them how to get a GMail account. If I had any brain cells I’d propose that Twitter directly enter competition with these businesses or bill them for use and get some of the money π
*To the script kiddies that did this. Coming from the same side of the fence…I can sincerely say this was serious overkill and completely unnecessary. I can only guess that someone was actually being paid to do this…because despite the “to see if it can be done” factor, you’ve now given four of the largest social networks in the world live data with which to further strengthen themselves from attacks of this nature…in addition, at least in the Twitter venue…attention is now on them…and groups that wreak this level of havoc are rarely prepared for the level of attention that comes when the non-evil corps will pay big $$$ for the head of kids responsible for this. Just my opinion here mates, but you might’ve just set some crosshairs swiveling in your direction that have the facilities to go toe-to-toe with you.
Anyhow, here are some updates…enjoy!
-Tony
NEW YORK TIMES
Just found out that at least 8 different news sites are regurgitating this story verbatim…save yourself some time, use this article first…more coming from different sources.
PC WORLD
Not as good, but references to the myriad of business models 100% dependent on Twitter stability is a hint of things to be careful of…you know…like using someone else’s free service to make money π
WASHINGTON POST
Paraphrased NY Times article? can’t tell because the WP doesnt time-stamp their articles. (That means the WP gets lame-sauce points)