14 DAY TRIAL // On May 2, Avaaz.org revealed that its official website became the target of a massive distributed denial-of-service (DDOS) attack which, according to them, was most likely funded by a government or a large corporation that wanted to shut them down.
The global civic organization is a representative of activists worldwide and its actions have obviously upset a number of governments and companies.
“We were expecting this. Our people-powered campaigning has been fearless, and we've taken on the world's worst actors head-on, in ways that genuinely hurt them - from the Syrian and Chinese regimes to Rupert Murdoch, Big Oil and organized crime,” Avaaz representatives wrote.
“The Syrian dictatorship called our campaigner 'the most dangerous man in the world', and a UK inquiry recently revealed emails between Murdoch's news corporation and top levels of government saying the Avaaz campaign against Murdoch was their biggest concern. Many wondered when these people would come after us.”
The organization had been under attack for 36 hours straight, but because of their “top-notch” security they managed to keep the site running.
Reportedly, the origins of the attack were spread out all across the world, the massive requests sent their way threatening the success of their operations. However, that didn’t discourage the activists who asked their supporters for donations that would help them further enhance their security systems.
It’s uncertain at this time if the attack is ongoing, but the site seems to be functioning properly. We’ll keep you posted if any new details are made available.
This is not the only large DDOS attack we’ve witnessed these days. Yesterday we learned that the site of UK’s Serious Organized Crime Agency had become a target. At the time, security experts believed it might have had something to do with the takedown of 36 illegal sites.