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back to article DDoS attack downs University of London learning platform

The University of London Computer Centre fell victim to a cyber-attack on Thursday. The assault left Moodle – an open-source learning platform – out of action for several hours on Thursday morning before normal service was restored. Technicians initially estimated problems were down to firewall configuration issues, before …

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  1. Anonymous Coward
    Meh

    C'mon

    "While it’s positive to see that staff at ULCC have got the system back up and running, over four hours of ‘complete shutdown’ is not an acceptable time-period in most businesses cases."

    DDoS are not that easy a thing to defend against, even some of the biggest names have been wiped out, but this is not exactly a obvious target so being out for 4 hours is no major surprise.

    Yes you can take precautions, but it is a risk vs cost basis.

    14 0 Reply
    1. Lee D Silver badge
      Reply Icon

      Re: C'mon

      I think four-hours is quite good personally.

      I mean, quite what can you do but go to your upstreams and ask them to block? If their response is slow, so will yours be - plus some more while you work out who to call, try to block it in the meantime, etc. while you can't get on the net yourself.

      Combatting DDoS is, unfortunately, not as simple as just flicking a switch or blocking an IP. Likely nowadays you get hit with randomised packets from millions of sources simultaneously, and just blocking everything is no better than not being able to access your services because of the DDoS.

      Sorry, but whoever gave that four-hour quote is a damn idiot, or trying to sell you something that he doesn't have himself anyway.

      15 0 Reply
  2. Sir Sham Cad

    Not just students

    ULCC also provide hosted Moodle sites for other organisations.

    To be fair to them they're a good bunch and clued. As Lost all faith says above, DDoS is difficult to prevent which is why it's the attack-of-choice if you just want to vandalise some shit on the Internet.

    6 0 Reply
  3. Ian 62

    DDoS ate my homework

    Check the assessment timetable.

    Which class had an assignment due, probably more likely to be tech related subject?

    Cross reference with whomever couldnt get their assignment finished because it was offline?

    1 2 Reply
  4. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    "A harsh lesson, now stand in corridor for four hours"

    Ah, one of our PE teachers used to tell selected first years, to go to the science lab, and ask a lab technician for a 'Long Weight'. The lab technician of course, being in on the joke used to just leave them outside the door for ages, as the idea was that they would have a 'Long wait'. Halogen days......

    2 0 Reply
    1. Rich 11
      Reply Icon

      Re: "A harsh lesson, now stand in corridor for four hours"

      Halogen Days? Wasn't that the prog rock band which emerged from their hippy-era incarnation, Halcyon Days?

      3 0 Reply
      1. Anonymous Coward
        Reply Icon
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: "A harsh lesson, now stand in corridor for four hours"

        "Halogen Days? Wasn't that the prog rock band which emerged from their hippy-era incarnation, Halcyon Days?"

        Are you sure you're not thinking of Halitosis Daze ? who of course went on to US success as Haliburton Wells until they sadly popped their corks a couple of years back.

        0 0 Reply
    2. 's water music
      Reply Icon

      Re: "A harsh lesson, now stand in corridor for four hours"

      I wouldn't have minded the long wait if it hadn't turned out that the tech was all out of tartan paint and glass hammers (for rubber nails) anyway.

      3 0 Reply
  5. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    This is precisely why...

    ...hackers and those who use DDoS attacks should be executed by firing squad. They won't ever make the same mistake again.

    1 3 Reply
    1. Will Godfrey Silver badge
      Reply Icon

      Re: This is precisely why...

      ... so you want to make it easy on them eh?

      0 1 Reply
  6. Matt Bryant Silver badge
    Big Brother

    Meanwhile.....

    One of the sad, little, basement-dwelling Lizard Squad morons (IMHO) that did this type of stuff for "Shits'n'giggles" just got sent down - http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2015-05-22-lizard-squad-teen-pleads-guilty-to-23-charges-of-harassment. I'm betting the attack on the Uni of London is just the result of an online tiff between similar groups of undersexed teens.

    1 2 Reply
  7. Egghead & Boffin

    Exam season

    The part about it being the middle of exam season isn't completely accurate. I teach distance learning students at part of UoL and our exams ended 2 weeks ago (mine sat theirs on the 6th of May). We're now marking the papers. Since the exams are 'sat and written' in the traditional way in exam halls and all exam instructions were sent out by post the impact on students ability to do their exams as a result of this DoS would be zero.

    1 0 Reply

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