[ISN] Hackers Cancel Attack on CNN

From: InfoSec News (alerts@private)
Date: Sun Apr 20 2008 - 22:28:34 PDT


http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/144850/hackers_cancel_attack_on_cnn.html

By Robert McMillan
IDG News Service
April 19, 2008

A planned cyberattack against CNN's Web site fizzled out Saturday as the 
group backing the event called it off.

"Our original plan for 19 April has been canceled because too many 
people are aware of it and the situation is chaotic," wrote a group 
called "Revenge of the Flame," according to a translation posted on the 
Dark Visitor Blog. "At an unspecified date in the near future, we will 
launch the attack."

Pro-China hackers had called for the attack in protest of the news 
network's coverage of Tibet, which they believe has been overly critical 
of China. Participants had been instructed to flood CNN's Web site with 
Internet traffic in hopes of knocking it offline, something known as a 
distributed denial of service (DDOS) attack.


Early Harassment

Some had begun hitting the site ahead of the April 19 attack date.

On Friday CNN reported that it had been attacked Thursday causing the 
site "to be slow or unavailable to some users in limited areas of Asia." 
The net effect of the attack was "imperceptible," CNN said.

Network monitoring company Arbor Networks observed that www3.cnn.com was 
hit with a minor 14-MB-per-second attack that lasted about 21 minutes, 
according to Danny McPherson, the company's chief research officer.


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