Even security researchers do face difficulties with the cyber attackers they do research on. Last week, popular security researcher, Brian Krebs had his website, Brian Krebs On Security hit with some record cyber attacks which led to the website going offline.
Thankfully, for Krebs, everything did eventually turn out good after he got help from search and Internet giant, Google. The website had been targeted with some DDoS attacks, and Akamai said that the attack had been the largest one that the website had ever seen. Google used their own special program to help the Krebs on Security website when they were faced with the attack. Google was using Project Shield, a program that has been implemented in helping journalists and activist websites from being censored in various countries and corporations.
The attack on the Krebs website is said to have started after the well-known security journalist had reported on one scrupulous site called vDOS. The website, according to Krebs, is the brainchild of two Israeli citizens who have full-time jobs as cyber attackers for people who pay them. Krebs, being a popular person had his article go public, and the respective authorities acted against the website which led to its shutdown. The two men behind the website were also hacked as a result.
Writing in his report, Krebs wrote that to him DDoS attacks were more of a censorship. He explained that this was his thinking because the economics behind the issue of DDoS attacks was not an issue which was good for the protection of the individual user and it was even worse for journalists. In his blog post, Krebs did not point any blame to Akamai or point fingers because Akamai was hosting the site for free. The giant DDoS attacks not only affected Krebs website but all other websites which are hosted by Akamai, even though for paying subscribers.
The Project Shield offered by Google aims to protect the human rights and the election monitoring sites. It also intends to protect the independent news organizations and all websites which might be facing some constant threat from the cyber attacks. The search started the program after noticing that the Internet also encompassed some smaller and independent sites which could not afford the money or the technology to go with it to fight against all the attacks that they receive.
Krebs On Security was flooded with some heavy traffic on Tuesday which led to the jamming of several other websites hosted on the server. There was about 620 gigabits of traffic per second which attacked the Krebs on Security website. The website is however now back online, but judging from the latest post by the journalist, his website might still be under attack. He also wrote that he hoped that the problem would be fully addressed before it becomes a bigger issue and wanted to appreciate all the support he had received from the numerous readers and supporters.