© Reuters / David McNew
RT.com has been hit with the most powerful DDoS attack in the website's history, which reached 10 Gbps in strength. No group has claimed responsibility. RT has experienced cyber assaults in the past, prompted by its reporting on Manning and WikiLeaks.
The Wednesday attack was successfully deflected, but resulted in a temporary slowdown of the site.
"Thanks to the website's reliable technical protection, RT.com was unavailable just for a few minutes, even though the DDoS attack has continued
," RT's press service said in a statement.
The attack was identified as a UDP-flood type, and reached 10 gigabits per second.
Hackers have previously targeted RT with Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks, to prevent it from reporting on various controversial issues, such as the Chelsea Manning trial and WikiLeaks.
DDoS attacks bring websites down by fabricating internet traffic and overwhelming a site's hosting service.
One of the most powerful attacks on RT was recorded on February 18, 2013, when the website was unavailable for about 6 hours.
RT was also temporarily disabled for just under five hours in June 2013. Hacker group AntiLeaks, which opposes Julian Assange's WikiLeaks project, claimed responsibility for the attack.
The cyber assault coincided with RT's reporting on the trial of Chelsea (formerly Bradley) Manning and massive anti-government protests in Turkey. Uninterrupted coverage continued on RT's Twitter page.
In August 2012, the same group claimed responsibility for a massive DDoS attack which knocked out RT's English and Spanish websites for hours worldwide.
Comment: In [a] news release, U.S. Attorney William Hochul Jr. said, "With today's indictment of Mufid Elfgeeh, the government demonstrates that it will use all available tools to disrupt and defeat ISIL. The case also demonstrates that by working with the community, law enforcement is able to identify those who would harm our country or our returning soldiers." In other words, neighbors encouraged to become informants as in the 1940s.
Some chronology:
A Grand Jury indictment, dated April 2014, charges Elfgeeh with four counts for Attempt to Provide Material Support to a Foreign Terrorist Organization, one count Possession of Firearms and Silencers in Furtherance of a Crime of Violence, and two counts Possession of Unregistered Firearm Silencer.
On May 31, 2014, an undercover informant (Confidential Human Source - CS-1, CS-2) used Elfgeeh's Visa card to purchased two guns and silencers for Elfgeeh. When the informant and Elfgeeh met for delivery, the investigative team arrested Elfgeeh holding the box containing handguns, silencers and ammunition. In addition, his residence and workplace were searched on that date. In conversations with an informant, Elfgeeh said he had a bullet-proof vest. It was not found during the search.
In July, 2014, a fire seriously damaged his apartment and the store he managed next door which is still under investigation.
An additional search warrant application, dated August 6, 2014, was issued for WhatsApp Messenger. WhatsApp is an instant messaging subscription service for smartphones that uses the Internet for communication. Whats App is required to disclose all identity and personal contact info, accounts, passwords, all contact lists and their personal information, images and photos, geolocations, all links-senders-receivers, undelivered messages, net browsing, third-party websites, funds info, address books, etc.
On Sept. 16, 2014 the indictment was filed and the story is just now making big news (the arrest was carried June 2 in minor news outlets), curiously a few days after Obama declared war on the Islamic State, providing a threat example and validating the Pres's decision to turn the tables (follow the plan) on its devil creation to "protect Americans at home."
This is fascinating...contains all Elfgeeh's conversations with the two undercover informants and the case of evidence for the arrest (do read the footnotes):
http://documents.latimes.com/mufid-elfgeeh-search-warrant-application/