Denial Of Service Attacks On RIAA & MPAA Are A Really Dumb Idea

from the come-on dept

There's an entertainment industry lawyer who once used his blog to suggest that I had an "army of hackers" at my disposal that I would order to send a denial of service attack against anyone I disagreed with. I thought that was pretty funny in how ridiculous a claim it was. Beyond the fact that I can barely get my dog to follow my instructions (and I feed her!), let alone anyone who reads this site, I think that denial of service attacks are a pretty dumb idea. It does nothing but piss off people and doesn't make any real point at all. So it's really disappointing to hear that the /b/ folks at 4chan decided to use this weekend to DDoS the MPAA and then the RIAA. The thing with /b/ is that even at their most crude and immature, they're usually creative in their attacks. There's nothing at all creative about taking down the MPAA and the RIAA -- and all it does is serve to reinforce their misguided prejudices that it's just a bunch unruly kids who dislike them. On top of that, it gives them more ammo to position themselves as being persecuted by a small minority. It's a dumb move that looks bad and does a lot more harm than good from a group that should know better.

Filed Under: /b/, 4chan, ddos
Companies: mpaa, riaa

Verizon Wireless Blocks 4chan; You Would Think It Would Remember What Happened When AT&T Did That

from the not-wise dept

Last summer, due to a DDOS attack emanating from IP addresses connected to 4chan, AT&T temporarily blocked access to 4chan... without giving a full explanation for why. If you know 4chan, you know why this is a bad idea. It took very little time for the 4chan community to retaliate (and, as you know, no one "retaliates" like 4chan "retaliates"), and only a few days later, when AT&T explained what happened, did 4chan back off. So, now comes the news this weekend that Verizon Wireless is blocking 4chan (this is just Verizon Wireless, not Verizon), and the company seems to be making the same mistake. No clear explanation of why. I'm sure there's a reason that Verizon Wireless can give, but not explaining that immediately seems like a huge mistake. Update: Not surprising, but looks like the same reasoning as AT&T's temporary block last year. Still doesn't explain why the company wasn't upfront in explaining it.

Filed Under: 4chan, blocking, explanations
Companies: 4chan, at&t, verizon wireless

AT&T Blocks 4chan Over DDoS... But May Not Like What Happens Next...

from the that-would-not-be-a-good-thing... dept

A few folks have submitted the news that, apparently, AT&T is blocking access to a certain subdomain of 4chan. I just checked on my own AT&T DSL account and it's true that I can't get there (I can get there if I don't go via AT&T). That doesn't mean that AT&T definitely is blocking it, but there are reports that folks at AT&T have admitted that it's true. If you don't know what 4chan is, the 4chan Wikipedia page is probably the best way to understand it. Even if the site is controversial for some, it does seem quite extreme for AT&T to do an outright block, without any official warning or immediate explanation. Outright blocking of websites, without recourse and without a clear explanation of why, is extremely questionable and the sort of "net neutrality" violation that the FCC would likely come down hard against. If it's true that there's a block, perhaps AT&T is assuming that no one serious (such as the FCC) would come to the defense of 4chan, but that might be a mistake (in part because AT&T probably won't like what happens when 4chan decides to come to its own defense). Hopefully this will be explained away as a mistake. So far, the best explanation I've seen is (via 4chan) the claim that the subdomain was involved in some sort of DDoS attack, but you would think that, if that were the case, AT&T would have just made that clear from the beginning. Not coming out with a clear and concise explanation just looks bad, and seems to be stirring up 4chan folks to make a statement -- something AT&T almost certainly does not want. AT&T may be able to tap your phones, but getting on the wrong side of 4chan seems like a bad, bad idea.

Update: As expected, AT&T has confirmed (as we believed) that this was over a DDoS attack:

Beginning Friday, an AT&T customer was impacted by a denial-of-service attack stemming from IP addresses connected to img.4chan.org. To prevent this attack from disrupting service for the impacted AT&T customer, and to prevent the attack from spreading to impact our other customers, AT&T temporarily blocked access to the IP addresses in question for our customers. This action was in no way related to the content at img.4chan.org; our focus was on protecting our customers from malicious traffic.

Overnight Sunday, after we determined the denial-of-service threat no longer existed, AT&T removed the block on the IP addresses in question. We will continue to monitor for denial-of-service activity and any malicious traffic to protect our customers.

That said, I still think AT&T failed here, in that they did not make this clear from the outset. If they had stated upfront what the situation was, in conjunction with the temporary block, they would have been much better off. But by silently blocking, they kicked off a firestorm that had to have been expected by anyone aware of 4chan.

Filed Under: 4chan, blocking, ddos, isps, net neutrality
Companies: at&t