Twitter Under Denial of Service Attack

Cloud Computing as a Strategic Asset

By G C Network | April 30, 2009

For some reason, this week seems to have more in it than most. While the steady stream of briefing request seem to be increasing, the post briefing discussions also seem…

Vivek Kundra: “Engage the American People in their Daily Digital Lives”

By G C Network | April 25, 2009

Today I attended a very impressive talk by the Federal CIO, Mr. Vivek Kundra at a Northern Virginia Technology Council Public Policy event. His open and “matter of fact” approach…

McKinsey vs. Booz Allen Hamilton !

By G C Network | April 21, 2009

A community skirmish reminiscent of the recent “manifestogate” has apparently erupted around the McKinsey & Co. report “Clearing the air on cloud computing“. Booz Allen Hamilton Principals Mike Cameron and…

Oracle Buys Sun!!

By G C Network | April 20, 2009

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Aneesh Chopra Nominated For Federal CTO

By G C Network | April 20, 2009

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Could Cloud Computing Cost More?

By G C Network | April 16, 2009

In a recent conference, analyst William Forrest says that large companies could end up paying more than twice as much by using cloud based services. According to a Forbes.com report,…

Cisco’s Cloud Computing Strategy

By G C Network | April 10, 2009

A couple of weeks ago, Krishna Sankar provided a glimpse into Cisco’s cloud computing strategy in a presentation titled “A Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Inter-Cloud” . The presentation outlined the…

NCOIC and Cloud Computing: An Update

By G C Network | April 8, 2009

As the NCOIC gets it’s arms around this new paradigm, the Cloud Computing Working Group has focused on establishing a roadmap for providing value to the industry. Using the established…

SUN-IBM Talks Breakdown

By G C Network | April 6, 2009

As reported in multiple sources today, including Reuters, Sun has apparently rejected a purchase offer by IBM. “Shares of Sun Microsystems Inc tumbled 22.5 percent after it rejected a $7…

Former DoT CIO on Cloud Computing

By G C Network | April 3, 2009

Last month, former Transportation Department CIO Dan Mintz offered his views on cloud computing to Eric Chabrow, Managing Editor of Government Information Security. According to Mr. Mintz, there is currently…

Multiple sources are reporting that Twitter continues to be under a denial of service attack. Some are speculating that this represents the power of a coordinated bot network attack. For the government community it is also a demonstration of what a well organized adversary can do against a major website.
Since Twitter is a cloud application on top of Amazon Web Services, my earlier thoughts explained in Cloud Computing: The Dawn of Maneuver Warfare in IT Security quickly come to mind.
I’m also contemplating that this could have something to do with Twitter effectiveness that I showcased in Iranian Protests Showcase Twitter, Facebook, YouTube (and Cloud Computing)!
The Georgia incident showed the reality of cyberwar. Is this a Cyber terrorist attack?

Update from Reuven Cohen:

If I were a betting man, I’d say that this attack was done using Multi-Stage BGP & DNS Attack Vector. My only real proof is a little common sense as well as the simple reason that a typical HTTP denial of service attack causes a spike in traffic not a drop as illustrated below.

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1 Comments

  1. Chrystal K. on August 6, 2009 at 10:49 pm

    This is so sad.