Site problems following DDOS attack - more information here

[YetAnotherBeckyMumsnet]

Hi all, just to update you on the current situation. As Justine posted here, we’ve been suffering a DDOS attack since approx 11.30am today and as a result, the site has been slow and went down briefly. The app is also out of action for now while the firewall is up.

Our firewalls are keeping the site secure but this does mean you’re getting a ‘checking your browser’ message every thirty minutes (you don’t have to do anything here apart from wait to get back on) and some of you may be asked to complete a captcha test to make sure you’re a human.

We’re sorry for the extra hassle right now, we’re working hard to resolve the situation and things should be back to normal soon. Thanks very much for your patience.

How does it work do they have thousands of like minded folk logging on at the same time?

I know a DDOS is a pain for MNHQ and an inconvenience for users, but in this instance, honestly PigletJohn's post upthread makes this one worthwhile.

It's computer code that pretends to be someone logging on, sometimes it will send screwy messages so the server gets bogged down trying to understand the request

Virus or paid for computing resources

On thousands of systems all over the world.

I'm not a robot.

Or am I?

My first thought was 'My internet connection is slow', but it was working for other sites.

Then when I googled ''Is MN down?' I read about the attack...andf thought ''A man probably saw an 'AIBU' post about himself''...

Seems some sectors of society {Men} are pretty anti MN, in a very aggressive way.

Utter bullies.

Just signed up for Premium because of this. Thanks for giving women a space to talk.

@ErrolTheDragon

I know a DDOS is a pain for MNHQ and an inconvenience for users, but in this instance, honestly PigletJohn's post upthread makes this one worthwhile.

Agreed!

@PigletJohn many lols!

and some of you may be asked to complete a captcha test to make sure you’re a human.

Oh crap, I always fail those. It must be some guilty robot conscience thing.

@HazeyJaneII

and some of you may be asked to complete a captcha test to make sure you’re a human.

Oh crap, I always fail those. It must be some guilty robot conscience thing.

It all goes a bit Bladerunner for me too.

I think I am a robot

I quite like the captcha tests now they're mostly identifying whether or not there's some specific item in roadscapes instead of illegible squiggles. Apparently they're serving the double purpose of tagging images to be used to train AIs for driverless cars.

@justasking111 the attackers just use a software program to launch the DOS attack. So they don't need lots of people! The programs are available on the web, they don't even need to write any code.
Scriptkiddie stuff

I am not a robot.

That's exactly what a robot pretending to be human would say.

@littlepattilou

Thanks Becky. I wondered why I kept getting a 'checking your browser' message! I thought 'oooh 'ello, are they watching me?'

rest assured, nobody is watching you.

that's great news Mermoose - you're welcome!

AS others have said above this isn't actual people all trying to use the web site at the same time with the intention of jamming access to the web site (a bit like everyone going away on a bank holiday and roads that are normally fairly quiet are suddently log jammed) ie this isn't about accessing the programs that make the web site function (although they may be trying to do that as well).

It probably isn't even MRAs or TRAs but a bunch of school kids in eastern Europe or Korea setting each other challenges.

Just out of interest as part of the process seems to be checking users IP addresses does mumnet keep a list of our usual IP addresses so that you can distinguish us from those IP addresses that the DDOS is coming from?

Just out of interest as part of the process seems to be checking users IP addresses does mumnet keep a list of our usual IP addresses so that you can distinguish us from those IP addresses that the DDOS is coming from?
I doubt it - I don't think many people have static IP addresses any more.

I don't know if it's anything to do with all this, but I keep getting a very unpleasant ad popping up in various threads. I won't go into detail, and I've emailed mn about it, but has anyone else has this? Before anyone suggests, it has nothing to do with my browsing history, it's really unpleasant.

My ads are blank spaces, probably just as well by the sounds of it.

I'm also getting blank ads.
Why would anyone target a site for women to talk about women's things?

Was the attack a ransomware event or maybe an attempt to stop certain discussions ?

My ads are blank and it took ages to post on another thread.

well we haven't had an attack for a while have we?

we were due one i guess....didnt win though did they!?

Reading the thread so far, we have suggestions of:

• a pissed off husband (PMSL!)
• Netmums
• trans activists
• a botnet
• North Korean hackers

I'm going with trans activists as they are constantly at odds with females' spaces.

If it's not trans or any of the above others, then I'm going with some far-right group such as Donald Trump sympathisers or Alt Right.

Anonymous is also capable of bringing down websites too, but I don't think it's in their best interest to target MN.

It's probably a teenager who figured out that as mum had too much to do juggling wfh and homeschooling, she really needed MN taking down at the weekend so she had time to clean the house and defrost the fridge.
So if one of yours has been suspiciously quietly tapping away on a computer and now looks smug....