p2pnet - rss feed: Radio Free Europe hit by DoS attacks
p2pnet news | Freedom:- Web sites run by US funded Radio Free Europe/RadioLiberty have been hit by DoS (denial-of-service) attacks, knocking them offline
RFL was highlighting demonstrations, “protesting the plight of uncompensated Chornobyl victims and a government decision to build a new nuclear power station,” it says.
The Belarus Service was the primary target and its director, Alyaksandr Lukashuk (right), says he was forced it to use other means to get its message out, including:
- going back to the airwaves and broadcasting on shortwave
- posting its material on the websites of the independent media and Internet community in Belarus, which came together in solidarity with the service in its response to the attack
- relying on a network of friends and dedicated listeners to spread the word on how to access the service’s materials, on other websites and on the air
The attack started on April 26, intially targeting RFE/RL’s Belarus Service, “but quickly spread to other sites,” RFL says, going on >>>
Within hours, eight RFE/RL websites (Belarus, Kosovo, Azerbaijan, Tatar-Bashkir, Radio Farda, South Slavic, Russian, and Tajik) were knocked out or otherwise affected.
Lukashuk said a large online audience was relying on RFE/RL’s Belarus Service to report live on a rally of thousands of people, organized by the Belarusian opposition.
“The demonstrators were protesting the plight of uncompensated Chornobyl victims and a government decision to build a new nuclear power station,” says RFL, going that other Belarusian websites were also hit, including the Minsk-based nongovernmental organization Charter 97.
“Since the attacks, many other independent websites in Belarus have carried content from RFE/RL’s Belarus Service,” it says.
States RFE/RL president Jeffrey Gedmin >>>
If free and independent media existed in these countries where we’re working and broadcasting, we would have no reason to exist,” Gedmin said. “The Belarusians, the Iranians - they all have basically the same objective. They see free information - flowing information of ideas and so forth - as the oxygen of civil society.
They’ll do anything they can to cut it off. If it means jamming, if it means cyberattacks, that’s what they’ll do.
Almost exactly a year ago, Estonian sites were downed by a wave of cyberattacks.
Estonia accused Russia of launching them after a monument honoring Soviet troops was relocated, “sparking anger in Russia and among Estonia’s ethnic-Russian population,” says RFL.
Moscow denied any involvement.
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wave of cyberattacks - Estonia blames hack attacks on Russia, May 18, 2007
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April 29th, 2008 at 3:17 pm
Don’t they know? Nuclear reactors are now safer than coal-operated plants. In the last couple decades, nuclear technology has advanced quite a bit.
Or maybe he wants 5 new honking coal-fired plant in its place… After all, how else will they get the power they need?
April 30th, 2008 at 5:36 am
That’s not the issue. The issue is that it was taken down, and it might be said that it is quite suspicious that it happens just as they’re protesting. Alot of websites within the last 2 months have been hit by DoS attacks. I wonder…
April 30th, 2008 at 2:16 pm
Nuclear Power has always been a safe technology. It’s been hyped up as unsafe for decades, and the Chornobyl accident didn’t help matters.
This is a suspicious situation indeed, and I am curious if they are able to investigate these DoS attacks to see where they originated.