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Victoria Spring 2011 - Islandnet under attack · Thursday May 12, 2011 by colin newell

Islandnet denial of service attackMy ISP (client since 1995) has been under a cyber-attack since yesterday – taking down the entire operation several times over the last 24 hours – disrupting thousands of customers and hundreds of webpages.

For the time being all is calm.

Islandnet.com was contacted by the attackers who ordered that the web site in question be taken down.

Islandnet.com has capitulated. And in their words.

UPDATE 3:12pm: we have been contacted by a group claiming to be behind the attacks. They identify the target (a customer of ours) and demand that the site in question be shut down or the attacks will continue. As much as I hate to capitulate, we can’t afford to stand up for the rights of one customer at the expense of all the others, so the site has been shut down.”

Not sure how I feel about this.

So. It was not the website I thought it might be. For all intents and purposes, it could have been my blog – which regularly speaks out on some sensitive international issues – pleases me to no end that my opinion is not so valued somewhere that I would be attacked over it. That said, I am not sure how I would feel about my Canadian ISP giving me the boot over the whims of a foreign power.

  1. Agree with the “mixed feelings” issue. Didn’t know about the capitulation until i read your blog. For a few moments, i actually wondered whether my site was offending some sensitive souls. But hey..we’re a health service, not a politically motivated service.Have fun.


    Austin Peckham    May 12, 04:26 pm    #
  2. This is bad. It is making me lose respect for Islandnet. So this is how is it giving into pressure from some foreign power? I thought Canada was an independent country.


    Keith    May 12, 08:50 pm    #
  3. Not sure if its a foreign power even but we would rather take one customer site down then have another attack, at least until things become a little more clear as to motivation.

    There are a few obvious suspects that could be directly linked with the website being attacked which turns out is not a wildlife site as we thought.

    The wildlife site had a seal released to the wild and the youtube feature just so happened ti be Featured on Ellen and was getting major traffic.


    Rob Turner    May 12, 09:25 pm    #
  4. Wow. This makes me sad and angry. Had the union site still been there, it could totally have been targeted too. I have to say, I feel pretty happy having jumped ship when we did.


    Cheryl    May 12, 11:27 pm    #
  5. Thanks for comments everyone – it raises some serious freedom of speech issues, sovereignty issues, data security etc… on and on and on… I know this has happened before to other sites, but for us here on Vancouver Island – it could be a bit of a wake up call and beginning of the end of some of the freedoms we take for granted. My feeling is (and I understand the desire to get to safer ground…) – if it can happen on little old Islandnet, it can happen anywhere – I would like to mirror my site in a few places and have a back up plan – but that involves more money – and effort maintaining mirror sites. Overall, I was impressed at how it was handled and pleased with myself on how calm I stayed — and for a change, my e-mail was not ringing off the hook – everyone seemed to take the down time in their stride. More discussion on this over the next few days I am sure.


    Colin    May 13, 10:06 am    #

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