| Topic: |
Religions > Atheism |
| User: |
"Therion Ware" |
| Date: |
28 Oct 2004 07:19:13 AM |
| Object: |
OT: Attack prompts Bush website block |
Attack prompts Bush website block
The official re-election site of President George W Bush is blocking
visits from overseas users for "security reasons".
The blocking began early on Monday so those outside the US and trying
to view the site got a message saying they are not authorised to view
it.
But keen net users have shown that the policy is not being very
effective.
Many have found that the site can still be viewed by overseas browsers
via several alternative net addresses.
Hack attack
The policy of trying to stop overseas visitors viewing the site is
thought to have been adopted in response to an attack on the
georgewbush.com website.
Scott Stanzel, a spokesman for the Bush-Cheney campaign said: "The
measure was taken for security reasons."
He declined to elaborate any further on the blocking policy.
The barring of non-US visitors has led to the campaign being inundated
with calls and forced it to make a statement about why the blocking
was taking place.
In early October a so-called "denial of service" attack was mounted on
the site that bombarded it with data from thousands of PCs. The attack
made the site unusable for about five hours.
ALTERNATIVE ADDRESSES
https://georgewbush.com/
http://65.172.163.222/
http://origin.georgewbush.com/
About the same time the web team of the Bush-Cheney campaign started
using the services of a company called Akamai that helps websites deal
with the ebbs and flows of visitor traffic.
Akamai uses a web-based tool called EdgeScape that lets its customers
work out where visitors are based.
Typically this tool is used to ensure that webpages, video and images
load quickly but it can also be used to block traffic.
Geographic blocking works because the numerical addresses that the net
uses to organise itself are handed out on a regional basis.
Readers of the Boingboing weblog have found that viewers can still get
at the site by using alternative forms of the George W Bush domain
name.
Ironically one of the working alternatives is for a supposedly more
secure version of the site.
There are now at least three working alternative domains for the
Bush-Cheney campaign that let web users outside the US visit the site.
The site can also be seen using anonymous proxy services that are
based in the US. Some web users in Canada also report that they can
browse the site.
Traffic control
The international exclusion zone around georgewbush.com was spotted by
net monitoring firm Netcraft which keeps an eye on traffic patterns
across many different sites.
Netcraft said that since the early hours of 25 October attempts to
view the site through its monitoring stations in London, Amsterdam and
Sydney have failed.
By contrast Netcraft's four monitoring stations in the US managed to
view the site with no problems.
Data gathered by Netcraft on the pattern of traffic to the site shows
that the blocking is not the result of another denial of service
attack.
Mike Prettejohn, Netcraft president, speculated that the blocking
decision might have been taken to cut costs, and traffic, in the
run-up to the election on 2 November.
He said the site may see no reason to distribute content to people who
will not be voting next week.
Managing traffic could also be a good way to ensure that the site
stays working in the closing days of the election campaign.
However, simply blocking non-US visitors also means that Americans
overseas are barred too.
Most American soldiers stationed overseas will be able to see the site
as they use the US military's own portion of the net.
Akamai declined to comment, saying it could not talk about customer
websites.
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/technology/3961557.stm
Published: 2004/10/28 10:18:41 GMT
© BBC MMIV
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| User: "Mark K. Bilbo" |
|
| Title: Re: OT: Attack prompts Bush website block |
28 Oct 2004 08:12:21 AM |
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On Thu, 28 Oct 2004 13:19:13 +0100, Therion Ware wrote:
Scott Stanzel, a spokesman for the Bush-Cheney campaign said: "The measure
was taken for security reasons."
<snork>
I get so damn tired of "security" babble when it comes to the damn web.
Okay, so there are commercial sites and some potential for economic
damage. But, then, the idiots who tried to do commerce with HTTP are too
stupid to breathe and probably do more damage with their dumbfuckery than
any "hacker" could.
What "security" is involved in a damn campaign site? Somebody might deface
it? Oooooo. Yeah, that's *so *scary. So many people have died because of
defacement of websites!
(Oh, wait)
--
Mark K. Bilbo - a.a. #1423
EAC Department of Linguistic Subversion
Alt-atheism website at: http://www.alt-atheism.org
-----------------------------------------------------------
"Being surprised at the fact that the universe
is fine tuned for life is akin to a puddle being
surprised at how well it fits its hole"
-- Douglas Adams
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