back to article WikiLeaks haters launch DDoS assault on Russia Today

An anti-WikiLeaks group has admitted responsibility for a sustained DDoS attack that made the Russia Today website intermittently unavailable on Friday. The Kremlin-funded channel features a talk show hosted by Julian Assange but posts by AntiLeaks, the group which launched the attack, suggest the assault has more to do with …

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  1. BlinkenLights

    The article says... "convicted for signing and anti-Putin song".

    Is that signing as in an a signature, or signing as in some kind of sign language?

    1. Martin

      And typically...

      ...when you point out an error in spelling or grammar, you'll make one yourself.

      "Is that signing as in an a signature...."

      1. Cthonus
        Joke

        Re: And typically...

        We could have had them at the closing Olympics ceremony signing "Always look on the bright side of life.." whilst dressed as Russian Orthodox nuns on skates....

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      They are a bunch of misguided very silly American Tweenagers who do this In between getting home from school and being called in for their dinner by mom. Then they sit up all night playing on the computer on their own cos mom is out at Pilates and dad is having an affair with the secretary.

      Ok so my mind is wandering, but you get what I mean.

      1. Fibbles

        The jailed members are aged 22, 22 and 29.

        Tweenagers; I do not think it means what you think it means..

    3. LinkOfHyrule
      Happy

      At least Pussy Riot was spelt correctly

      It is easy to mistype it as Pussy Tori - and if you did, it will likely confuse the average Daily Mail reader who would assume you were referring to the feline wing of the Conservative party!

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: At least Pussy Riot was spelt correctly

        Then there's the Korean French restaurant, Pussy Roti...

  2. Miek
    Linux

    Hackers are not responsible for DDOS attacks, skiddies are. I wish journalists would learn the meaning of the word "Hack". Flooding a network with garbage data is certainly not a "Hack" and mislabelling skiddies as hackers not only boosts these morons egos but also misleads the reader.

    I would point you at the following resource to further your knowledge:

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hack

    You will note that the phrase ddos does not appear on that page.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      '"I wish journalists would learn the meaning of the word "Hack"'

      That batlle was lost 20 years ago. Time to move on.

      1. Scorchio!!

        Re: '"I wish journalists would learn the meaning of the word "Hack"'

        "That batlle was lost 20 years ago. Time to move on."

        Hmm. Maybe, but in a tech zine? It grates. Really it grates.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Pint

      @Miek

      "Hackers are not responsible for DDOS attacks, skiddies are. I wish journalists would learn the meaning of the word "Hack".".

      Although I agree with you and obviously realize that El Reg is basically a technical based news site I'm actually glad they report this in the way they do.

      Because lets be realistic here: this is how the rest of the world will pick up this news. Instead of fighting it I'd suggest to keep this in the back of your head instead for when you may encounter such issues in real life. Instead of correcting $colleague hear him out and play along; that will get you much more in the overall.

      Just my 2 cents though.

  3. kyza

    From the artciel:

    'WikiLeaks condemned the attack on RT as an assault on free speech. "WikiLeaks condemns the attempt to censor RT. RT is an important alternative voice in the West," a tweet by the whistle-blowing group said.'

    Wikileaks defending the Russian state-owned TV station - one that is relentlessly pro-Putin.

    Looking glass, we are through you!

  4. kyza

    *article

  5. Bumpy Cat
    Big Brother

    How odd

    Wikileaks "GRRRAR! WEST BAD! OTHERS GOOD!" attitude has led them to the very odd position of defending Putin's Russia and Lukashenko's Belarus. So a free speech case where protestors are jailed for two years for "hooliganism" has Wikileaks defending the autocrats.

    Meanwhile, while Ecuador offers asylum to Assange, who faces the terrifying prospect of jail in Sweden, Alexander Barankov is in jail in Ecuador facing the genuinely terrifying prospect of jail - or death - in Belarus. No asylum granted here, no. Police in Ecuador shut down the newspaper Vanguardia for "labour laws", and surely nothing to do with their criticism of the government.

    What a bunch of goddamn hypocrites.

    1. micheal
      Childcatcher

      Re: How odd

      I cant help feeling that everything happening on the internet will be assigned to pro / anti Assange in the same way as fanboy / fandroid and MS / Apple by the Reg

      1. Bumpy Cat
        Pint

        Re: How odd

        Quite likely, but in this case Antileaks admitted the attacks and Wikileaks spoke up for RT.

        Pint picture because it's time to go home and I need a pint.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: How odd

      Not a free speech case, the cathedral these self advertising douches desecrated was built from public donations from the Russian people as a memorial to the end of the reign of the mass murderer Stalin. (Assuming you are an American) how would you like it if a bunch of assorted scumbags did the same kind of thing in your park of rememerance for the Sept 11 attacks, I think you'd want them locked up too.

      1. Bumpy Cat
        Unhappy

        Re: How odd

        UK citizen here (recently). If someone desecrated a memorial I *would* want them locked up ... but *should* they be locked up? Freedom of speech is not just for people you like - it's also for arseholes and douches.

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          @Bumpy Cat

          Like I said, not a free speech case. They could have chosen anywhere else to promote themselves and give the finger to Putin but instead chose to insult a lot of ordinary russian people instead. So the hooliganism charge is probaly justified (in Russia) and we ARE talking about russian citizens in russia after all. Also re Assange, It's not that he thinks that he won't get a fair trial in Sweden, it's because he thinks (reasonably IMO) that he will be rendered to the USA no matter what the result. And why would anyone trust a nation that runs GITMO?

          1. Fibbles

            Re: @Bumpy Cat

            They were protesting the support of Putin by the Patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church.

            Seems to me like they held their protest in exactly the right place...

        2. Scorchio!!

          Re: How odd

          "UK citizen here (recently). If someone desecrated a memorial I *would* want them locked up ... but *should* they be locked up? Freedom of speech is not just for people you like - it's also for arseholes and douches."

          I prefer the perspective of another Russian protester who, as much as he deprecated the incident in an orthodox church, opposed what has been done to the demonstrators.

          As to pissing on the dead/war memorials, I like the old fashioned village policeman solution; box the fucker's ears.

      2. disgruntled yank

        Re: How odd

        The US law enforcement agencies are now and then put to considerable expense to defend the free speech rights of various nogoodniks: the Klan; the weird dirtbags who protest at servicemembers' funerals; etc. etc. Hell, various Iranian nationals used to protest in Washington in support of their countrymen who had taken our embassy staff hostage, and none that I heard of were harmed.

        And I am no canon lawyer, but can you "desecrate" a cathedral by singing inappropriate songs in it? If so, I have a few choirmasters to turn in.

      3. Alyas
        Flame

        Re: How odd

        "Not a free speech case, the cathedral these self advertising douches desecrated was built from public donations from the Russian people as a memorial to the end of the reign of the mass murderer Stalin. (Assuming you are an American) how would you like it if a bunch of assorted scumbags did the same kind of thing in your park of remembrance for the Sept 11 attacks, I think you'd want them locked up too."

        Except that Putin is working hard to become the new Stalin. Journalists who criticize him too long and too loudly end up dead. People who start successful businesses and later refuse to sell them to apparatchiks find themselves imprisoned on trumped up charges by the corrupt police, indicted and convicted by the corrupt courts, paid off by the hacks in the privileged elite / organized crime / security apparatus with which Putin, like every other dictator, surrounds himself. This is all so sad because Putin started out by reigning in the oligarchs who had connived to take possession of all state assets when they were privatized, leaving the citizens with zilch. He is popular and has been and in the future could be elected in fair elections. But power has corrupted him, and now he's in the death spiral of having to wield ever more absolute power in order to stay in power, which results in increasing injustice and opposition.

        Since Putin is intent on becoming the new Stalin, I'd say that expressing opposition in him in a cathedral you mention is dedicated to celebrating the end of Stalinism is exactly the right place.

        Yes, the members of Pussy Riot should have expected and should get some punishment, like a month of community service or something. Two years in a hard labor camp? Get real. It was a kangaroo court, the purpose of which is one more obvious attempt to intimidate anyone who would dare voice criticism of Putin.

    3. Levente Szileszky
      Thumb Up

      Re: How odd

      PS: just to make it clear, I totally *AGREE* with you on the hypocrisy regarding Barankov's extradiction, moreover I do NOT trust Ecuador and their motives in this case for a second - it's NOT a democratic regime, regardless of their grandstanding here.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        @Levente Szileszky

        "moreover I do NOT trust Ecuador and their motives in this case for a second - it's NOT a democratic regime, regardless of their grandstanding here."

        It's a **democratically elected government**. Or are you using the US govt. metric?

        ie. "Let us exploit your markets and people, we don't care who leads or how they got into power".

        1. Levente Szileszky
          FAIL

          Re: @Levente Szileszky

          "it's a **democratically elected government**"

          Which means jackshit when it comes to GOVERNING - in other words it has nothing to with my point, namely it's actively suppressing dissent, free speech & press etc and, as I pointed out above, is in the process of extraditing Barankov to Belarus, the last dictatorship in Europe*.

          *: ruled by a stupid-looking, hilarious idiot with a gay bar-worthy mustache - not sure why but Lukashenko always strikes me as a classic closeted, aging gay man (+ his quick separation from his family right after he became a dictator does not help his image.)

    4. Levente Szileszky
      Thumb Down

      Re: How odd

      ...yeah, how odd when the same UK that protected Augusto Pinochet from extradition to face charges for torture and murder now is going so out of the way to extradite Assange for "coercion" (not rape, not torture, not murder nor anything similar) that they even threatened to ignore the embassy status and raid the building?

      And I just read the article how a Brit was sent to prison by Hollywood's parasites *in the UK*...

      ...Jesus, is there anything you cannot *BUY* in the UK?

      I'm still undecided on Assange but boy, what an incompetent scumbag government you Brits have, it's just breathtaking... from, the other side of the pond it really seems like the worst in the past 30 years (yes, I really said that, Major included.)

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: How odd

        "from, the other side of the pond it really seems like the worst in the past 30 years (yes, I really said that, Major included.)"

        How on earth do you know what's happening outside of the USA's borders (or within them for that matter)? I've seen American 'news' and it is the biggest oxymoron in the history of the human race.

    5. DiViDeD
      FAIL

      Re: How odd

      "Assange, who faces the terrifying prospect of jail in Sweden" Um no, I believe Assange is facing the possibility (if they ever get around to charging him with anything) of a fine of up to SKr 5,000 and a mandatory STD test. It's not the Swedish case that drove him to Ecuador, it's the very real possibility he could end up being flown to the US to be charged with 'saying not cice things about us', which as we all know, carries the death penalty

  6. mhenriday
    Big Brother

    Those who support Pussy Riot

    but condemn Wikileaks and Mr Assange fail to grasp what freedom of speech/information is all about. Contrary to what you may have read - implicitly - in our European and North American corporate media, it is not about supporting speech/actions that are anti-Putin, while condemning those who investigate those who shed light on the secret activities of actors in such political and economic capiitals as Washington, New York, and London. But as Upton Beall Sinclair used to say, «It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends upon his not understanding it !»...

    Henri

    1. Steve Knox
      Happy

      Re: Those who support Pussy Riot

      What about those of use who support Pussy Riot and condemn Assange not out of some fairy-tale ideal of freedom of information, but simply because Pussy Riot sounds like a cool band and Assange has proven on several occassions that he's an asshat?

    2. Bumpy Cat
      FAIL

      Re: Those who support Pussy Riot

      Actually, I'm in favour of free speech and liberty FOR ALL.

      So when Assange runs to Correa that's fine, but then Correa hands Barankov to Lukashenko, and shuts down Vanguardia. HYPOCRITE.

      Wikileaks thinks Assange won't get a fair trial in the UK or Sweden - countries well-regarded for generally sound legal systems. But they're willing to trust the Russian legal system, which has just given two years for people being arseholes in a church. HYPOCRITE.

    3. Scorchio!!
      FAIL

      Re: Those who support Pussy Riot

      "Those who support Pussy Riot but condemn Wikileaks and Mr Assange"

      Assange is a bail jumper, wanted on in connection with alleged rape, end of story.

    4. This post has been deleted by its author

    5. Ossi

      Re: Those who support Pussy Riot

      Don't be so silly. Publishing stolen documents and protesting against your government by singing a song in a church are not the same activity. I believe strongly in the right to free speech, but it's never been a licence to do whatever you like. Free speech is and always has been limited by the rights of others not be harmed by your actions. There's always the difficult question of what 'harm' means, and ultimately your opinions depend on where you personally draw the line, but the idea that wherever you draw that line Pussy Riot and Wikileaks must necessarily be together on the same side of it is nonsensical

  7. Tony Paulazzo
    Happy

    >It is therefore extremely important that organisations take the threat posed by cyber-criminals seriously. <

    Haven't the American 'Security Theatre professionals' CIA, FBI, Homeland Security et al been pushing for more draconian laws to deal with just this threat recently?

    “Because today we live in a society in which spurious realities are manufactured by the media, by governments, by big corporations, by religious groups, political groups... So I ask, in my writing, What is real? Because unceasingly we are bombarded with pseudo-realities manufactured by very sophisticated people using very sophisticated electronic mechanisms. I do not distrust their motives; I distrust their power. They have a lot of it. And it is an astonishing power: that of creating whole universes, universes of the mind. I ought to know. I do the same thing.”

    ― Philip K. Dick

  8. bruceld

    simple fix for assange

    The Equador government can make Assange a diplomat, and this will give him diplomatic immunity.

    Besides, it doesn't take a genius to figure out that the CIA or FBI planted the female rape 'victims' so they can trump up charges against him and to villainize him making him be hated by the public. Assange might have a huge ego, but I hardly believe that he can only rape to get laid.

    Plain and simple, the United States was out to get him and they'll use whatever means necessary to punish him for helping make them a laughing stock.

    1. Steve Knox
      Happy

      Re: simple fix for assange

      The Equador government can make Assange a diplomat, and this will give him diplomatic immunity.

      Which isn't retroactive.

      Besides, it doesn't take a genius to figure out that the CIA or FBI planted the female rape 'victims' so they can trump up charges against him and to villainize him making him be hated by the public.

      You're absolutely right there. In fact, I'd go as far as saying a genius would probably NOT figure that out.

      Assange might have a huge ego, but I hardly believe that he can only rape to get laid.

      That issue isn't about only. And this article isn't about Assange. Why do he and his supporters keep trying to make everything about him, again?

      Plain and simple, the United States was out to get him and they'll use whatever means necessary to punish him for helping make them a laughing stock.

      [citation needed]

    2. Phil O'Sophical Silver badge
      Thumb Down

      Re: simple fix for assange

      > The Equador government can make Assange a diplomat, and this will give him diplomatic immunity.

      Which they would do by presenting his credentials to the Court of St. James.

      Which would, on the advice of Her Majesty's government, politely but firmly tell Ecuador to feck off.

    3. Scorchio!!
      FAIL

      Re: simple fix for assange

      "The Equador government can make Assange a diplomat, and this will give him diplomatic immunity."

      No it will not, unless the UK endorse it and I don't think that I have to tell you what their response will be, never mind the fact that the Ecuadorian machine is hiding man wanted on criminal charges. This sets a precedent that should make you uncomfortable.

      [Conspiracy theory snipped, blah, blah, blah.]

  9. nigel 15

    advert for arbor networks?

    Did arbor networks pay for that advert or did it just slip by your editors?

  10. This post has been deleted by its author

    1. Scorchio!!

      Re: Little background on one of the members

      "Tolokonnikova is not new to getting undressed for public. In 2008 she and her husband Pyotr Verzilov were involved in an event including group sex filmed in Moscow's Museum of Biology. Tolokonnikova was 18 and nine months pregnant. The footage was later posted on the Internet."

      Yes, and?

  11. nuked
    Angel

    3 russian girls called 'Pussy Riot'...

    Am I still asleep....

    1. Scorchio!!
      Happy

      Re: 3 russian girls called 'Pussy Riot'...

      "3 russian girls called 'Pussy Riot'... Am I still asleep...."

      You should have used Connery's line, "I must be in heaven".

      Shame on you! Now go and write it 500 times. :-)

  12. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    All in due time

    Assange will get exactly what he deserves.

  13. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    glad they are locked up

    article failed to mention the trespass and abuse of a religious site and the anti religious sentiment sent forth.

    Seeing those idiots on TV defending such hooliganism is a bad joke, proves that the media is only 'balanced' when it suits them.

    1. Scorchio!!

      Re: glad they are locked up

      "article failed to mention the trespass and abuse of a religious site and the anti religious sentiment sent forth.

      Seeing those idiots on TV defending such hooliganism is a bad joke, proves that the media is only 'balanced' when it suits them."

      Quite so, quite so, but what you and others miss is the fundamental and important part of a western democratic state, ever since the aspirations expressed in the age of reason and its reaction to autos da fe, the inquisition and so on; the separation of church and state. Contrast the response to St. Pauls, bear in mind the closeness of the grandson of Josef Stalin's cook, former KGB Lt. Col Putin, who has filled the state Duma with former KGB and FSB placemen, confident enough to reach out and extinguish another former KGB Lt. Col whose remit included investigating him in the days before the drunk, Yeltsin, brought him under his wing. The story is a very interesting and disturbing one. Consider the poisoning of Yushchenko, the fact that Russia has the worst morbidity rate in journalists of any country aspiring to be a 'Western' liberal democracy, that demonstrations are extinguished on the streets.

      Ask yourself why it is that the former communist is now siding with another ideology, and ask yourself what you would do in the circumstances in which these people find themselves. Research the summary trials and gaoling of people who oppose Putin.

      Something is rotten in the former Soviet Union, and it is not rioting pussies.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: glad they are locked up

        Not really sure what your point there was (perhaps you want them punished by a religious authority who has ideological views acceptable to you?)

        Plain facts are the actions were premeditated, concerted and illegal, perhaps harsh punishment, the press conveniently fail to mention when they will be actually be out in their effort to stir up 'controversy' etc. Provisionally I would say the only 'injustice' to 'Pussy Riot' is possibly an over sentencing.

  14. Local Group
    Trollface

    A lot of tsk tsking going on here about the way the Ruskies handled Pussy Riot

    Close your eyes and imagine the Masid al Haram in Mecca. Now imagine standing on top of the Kaaba, miked and ready to sing a ditty from the "Mikado", Pussy Riot.

    "Three little maids from school are we

    Pert as a school-girl well can be

    Filled to the brim with girlish glee

    Three little maids from school"

    "Everything is a source of fun

    Nobody's safe, for we care for none

    Life is a joke that's just begun

    Three little maids from school"

    It's no secret that Saudi Arabia and the US are Best Friends Forever. If nations could get married, well, the US hearts Saudi Arabia. So what do you think the US would say after the Saudis meted out justice to the female Russian band for their insult to Islam?

    Oooh, pussy tartar on toast. Pass the capers please.

    Yum Yum :o)

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