10-08-09 Cyber attacks continue at LiveJournalSocial-networking website LiveJournal said Monday it continues to be pounded by a cyber attack that last week derailed its blog service along with Twitter and Facebook."The attacks are continuing but LiveJournal is handling it just fine at this point," a spokesman for the service told AFP.However,there were problems accessing LiveJournal pages of a pro-Georgian blogger identified as the target of distributed-denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks intended to silence his online commentary.Messages from the Tbilisi-based blogger,who writes under the name "Cyxymu," were accessible at microblogging hotspot Twitter,where Monday he posted a link to a letter to Russian president Dmitry Medvedev.Twitter and leading online social-networking service Facebook did not respond to inquiries on Monday regarding whether they continue to be hit with cyber attacks.Late last week,massive DDoS attacks hammered Twitter,Facebook,LiveJournal and YouTube.Facebook reported on Friday that it had isolated the problem and service for its more than 250 million users had returned to normal.Internet security specialists say the source of the attacks may never be determined with certainty if no one claims responsibility.Cyxymu blames Russian authorities out to stifle his online commentary.Twitter and Facebook have teamed with US Internet powerhouse Google to investigate the attacks.Google owns online video-sharing website YouTube and a Blogger service that were reportedly hit by cyber attacks.Classic DDoS attacks involve legions of zombie computers,machines infected with viruses,which are commanded to simultaneously visit a website.Such a massive onslaught of demand can overwhelm website computer servers,slowing service or knocking it offline.An everyday chatting tool for many,Twitter has also become a weapon for dissidents to circumvent censorship in places where freedom of speech is suppressed |
