Twitter under Cyber Attack - Permanent Damage?

[Fergal]

Twitter was down for a few hours today, due to the impact of a Denial of Service (DOS) attack. You can view Twitter status updates here (http://status.twitter.com/). A denial of service attack (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denial-of-service_attack) is when outsiders maliciously flood the resources of an online service, with the objective of preventing their legitimate users from accessing the site.

Online businesses have increasingly been using Twitter to interact with their customers. Perhaps this attack will impact on the trust businesses place on Twitter and damage their future growth. In addition, many people feel that they spend too much time on Twitter, this break may just be a stimulus for them to start using their time more productively.

What do you think will a break of a few hours damage Twitter?

[devilbatista]

I think this will affect Twitter. I have experience of IRC ( Internet Relay Chat ) and mostly the chat servers get attacked or DOS. In this condition, IRC users leave the chat server. And some shift to another New IRC servers.

Like this, I think Twitter will loose it's users if it can't protect itself from DOS. Security is essential in every field.

[SallyM]

What have twitter said about the attack?

[Fergal]

What have twitter said about the attack?


Twitter is back in action. ...although there is still degraded service for some folks...

Over the last few hours, Twitter has been working closely with other companies and services affected by what appears to be a single, massively coordinated attack. As to the motivation behind this event, we prefer not to speculate...

...today's massive, globally distributed attack was a reminder that there's still lots of work ahead.

From the latest post on Twitter's Blog (http://blog.twitter.com/).

[DEADMAN]

I believe DDos attack won't have much impact when they've security against it. Twitter should have the moeny to buy necessary security to reduce DDos attack.

Actually, DDos attack to the site are created by net hackers. It's about attacking the DNS. I believe more computers or ips are used for the attack.

[pendelton]

IRC and Twitter are different worlds, Twitter will survive a DDOSing.

[seanstevens]

My own website was destroyed by someone a few weeks ago and I had to build a new one from scratch. Why? no idea, I don't have anything on there that can be stolen or used elsewhere and I don't have personal details of myself or clients stored their, so I guess someone was just bored one day.

To think of a large site that contains so much data being a target is a worry for a computer novice like myself (I can use one, but don't understand all the technical speak).

I'm trying to embrace the likes of Skype, Twitter, Linked In, Spoke etc. etc. for business and it seeing these things does make me wonder if my data is at risk?

Sean

[Fergal]

My own website was destroyed by someone a few weeks ago and I had to build a new one from scratch....

Sorry to hear that your site was hit like that Sean. If your host doesn't provide a back-up service, you might want to ask if this is something they can do, or even consider changing hosts.


...I'm trying to embrace the likes of Skype, Twitter, Linked In, Spoke etc. etc. for business and it seeing these things does make me wonder if my data is at risk?...

Even well known sites are susceptible to security attacks and there have been examples of data theft from websites owned by major corporations. When using sites like the ones you mention, you need to exercise a little care as to the data you put on them. One tip is to use different passwords for all of the services you use. It can be a pain, but if a hacker gets into one of your accounts they won't automiatically have your access details for all your other accounts, if the passwords are different.

It's also worth remembering that there is a possibility that anything you say on a social networking site could be quoted back to you, printed or read at any time in the future.

[devilbatista]

IRC and Twitter are different worlds, Twitter will survive a DDOSing.

Twitter and IRC are two different worlds. I agree that but the impact caused by DDos is the same. They will be harmed by same way that is they might loose users.