back to article Pirate Bay struggling to get on feet after DDoS to the knee

The Pirate Bay claimed to be “getting back up! Stronger than ever!” this evening after crumpling under a DDoS attack for most of today. The draining of the Pirate Bay sparked speculation that it was a victim of Anonymous, after the torrent site slated the hacktivist collective last week. The torrent site cum copyright freedom …

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  1. Jeebus

    I'd love to blame the RIAA and every other draconian associate, but the belief that they have the intelligence and knowledge to carry out even the absolute most basic of denial operations using a computer is absolutely in the realms of fantasy.

    We all know they barely even know what a computer is, let alone use one in such a manner.

    1. Aaron Em

      Of course

      they have no money also, and cannot afford to hire those who know more than they do.

    2. Matt Bryant Silver badge
      Facepalm

      Re: Jeebus

      "I'd love to blame the RIAA...." More likely it's some aggrieved skiddie that uses Virgin Media, unable to swipe back at the Anonyputzs, so instead hitting the object of their affection.

    3. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      I expect it's a responce the dodgy sites who were making money schemes off the site.

      (unrelated) Oh someone remind me (or do it themselves) to use this meme next time Orlowksi rambles on about piracy

      http://www.tickld.com/images/content/10281.jpg

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        My money is on the owners of a Russian paid site, which is impersonating TPB.

        No traffic for TPB means more traffic and dollar for them.

    4. Anonymous Coward
      Paris Hilton

      THE RIAA IS THE LAST HOPE OF PROFIT FOR MUSICIANS I THINK YOU OWE HIM AN APOLOGY

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Upvoted

        WELL I THINK IT'S FUNNY ANYWAY

        1. LaeMing
          Go

          Re: Upvoted

          Yes, I don't think BDG555 could make it any more obvious that those posts are not serious.

          1. Big Dumb Guys Wife

            Re: Upvoted

            MY HUSBAND IS VERY SERIOUS. ITS PART OF HIS CONTINUING THERAPY

            I WOULD HOPE THAT YOU ALL WOULD SUPPORT HIM RATHER THAN VOTING HIM DOWN

            WHEN HE GETS TO 100 UPVOTES I HAVE PROMISED TO TAKE THE KEYBOARD TO THE NICE COMPUTER MANS SHOP AND GET THE CAPS LOCK MENDED

            1. Anonymous Coward
              Anonymous Coward

              Re: Upvoted

              AtLeastHisSpaceBarWorks.

            2. Pascal Monett Silver badge

              Re: Big Dumb Guys Wife

              So, now it's extortion ?

              What will be next ? "Upvote me or I'll post something else ?"

    5. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      working fine

      In the uk

  2. Shakje

    Erm

    "That knee must be hurting bad, as from where we’re sat, it’s still unavailable, though downforeveryoneorjustme said it was up. Perhaps it depends which leg you’re talking about"

    Are you on Virgin?

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Erm

      Works fine from virgin. Just have to use one of the many proxies.

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    It's routing issues

    I just tried to access it direct from the UK, no go.

    Went through a VPN in the Netherlands, no problems.

  4. Cupboard
    Thumb Up

    working fine from here

    in the UK

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: working fine from here

      It's not working on my home connection (provided by Be [O2]) however if I use a vpn to a london server it loads instantly. I would have thought a DDoS would make the site at least run slowly regardless of where I was accessing it from.

      Can a DDoS only affect certain routes? I thought the target machine would be the endpoint & therefore the server(s) under stress.

      1. h4rm0ny

        Re: working fine from here

        "Can a DDoS only affect certain routes? I thought the target machine would be the endpoint & therefore the server(s) under stress."

        Simple answer, It can't and it would respecitvely, i.e. you're right. But the "Pirate Bay" is unlikely to be one machine at one address. There are probably proxies around the place which means if you connect from home (as in your case) you may be trying access one proxy, but if you connect via your VPN, you may be sent to a proxy for the site which isn't being DDoS'd.

        More accurate answer, yes it can only affect certain routes because 2nd tier providers have smart folks working for them who will intervene in various ways to seal off the attack, but different routes may go through different 2nd tier providers.

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    It's certainly up now

    If it is the MPAA/RIAA etc., will they be prosecuted?

    Anyway, screw the judge. I'll censor my internet content myself, thank you very much.

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Oouch !

    Memo received. Funny as Hell.

  7. david wilson

    Would seem a bit pointless for a serious industry organisation to to DDoS TPB since that's a pretty short term thing more like a teenage sulk than a practically worthwhile disabling, and it'd also cut away the moral high ground the RIAA, etc would seem likely to want to take.

    Maybe there's some double or triple-bluffing (or more) going on?

    1. Benjamin 4
      Joke

      Moral high ground, RIAA? Don't make me laugh!

  8. Homer 1
    Terminator

    Look at the Wookie!

    Of course it's the Media MAFIAA®.

    If they can buy politicians then they can certainly buy a botnet for a few hours.

    1. Christoph
      Holmes

      Re: Look at the Wookie!

      Trouble is that using a botnet is very illegal - you're using other people's computers without their permission.

      Yes, it's a good way to attack your enemies, and if they thought they could get away with it then I wouldn't put it past them for a moment.

      But if they can't be absolutely certain of getting away with it then it's too big a risk - they would be in very serious trouble indeed if it got out.

      Though of course they might be that stupid.

      1. Homer 1
        Terminator

        Re: Look at the Wookie!

        "Trouble is that using a botnet is very illegal"

        So is bribing politicians and stalking 10 year-old girls, but that didn't seem to bother the Media MAFIAA® much either.

    2. david wilson

      Re: Look at the Wookie!

      >>"Of course it's the Media MAFIAA®."

      >>"If they can buy politicians then they can certainly buy a botnet for a few hours."

      Well, with a watertight forensic argument like that, you've certainly got me convinced.

      They could have done it, so they must have done it. Case closed.

      But cui bono?

      I honestly don't see that the RIAA/MPAA/whoever would have much to gain, and they could have a fair amount to lose, especially in the current atmosphere where (whatever might have happened in the past) DDoS attacks do seem fairly closely identified with the people they would see as enemies doing stuff that most people would tend to see as wrong.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Excuse me, they've been caught red-handed at it before.

        Have you already forgotten that time just a couple years back when it came out they'd hired some bunch of indian hackers (aka 'Aiplex Software') to randomly DDoS people for them?

        Yes, that's not proof that they are involved in this particular incident, but it totally undermines your "don't see they would have much to gain and plenty to lose" argument that they are unlikely suspects. It is entirely empirical and logical that they should be on the list of suspects, that they should be high up on it, and no kind of abstract argument about how they /ought/ to behave can bring them down that list in light of the actual recorded historical fact of how they /have/ behaved.

        Now I come to think of it, can you really think of anything they've done recently that hasn't been irrational, self-destructive, ill-thought-out, and otherwise not what any corporately-sane organisation would do?

      2. Homer 1
        Holmes

        Re: Look at the Wookie!

        "Well, with a watertight forensic argument like that..."

        I was just stating the obvious. The Media MAFIAA® is the only suspect with any real motive. It also has past form, indeed it's been caught red-handed hiring goons like GOBBLES Security and MediaDefender to attack and hack into people's computers in the past.

        Anonymous, OTOH, has denied responsibility, even though it'd have no reason to do so, and has no qualms about admitting responsibility for other attacks. Not that a comment as benign as "We do not encourage these actions. We believe in the open and free internets" would be very likely to precipitate an all-out attack on TPB by Anonymous anyway.

        Obtaining actual forensic evidence to prove this, however, would require someone in the US government to actually care, and that's rather difficult when it's living in the Media MAFIAA's pocket. But it's glaringly obvious they are in fact responsible nonetheless. And I think it's only fair, after all, that we apply the same "guilty until, before and regardless of being proven innocent" principle to them that they apply to everyone else.

        1. DJ Smiley
          Facepalm

          Re: Look at the Wookie!

          Do Anon need motives for all the random sites they hit?

        2. Tom 13

          Re: I was just stating the obvious.

          Except that you are also obviously wrong. While it is true they have real motive, they are not the only ones with real motive. The sites they "counter-hacked" have real motive too. And those sites probably don't have lawyers with an aversion to doing things which are blatantly illegal. RIAA only do so when they think they can buy off the law first.

        3. h4rm0ny

          Re: Look at the Wookie!

          "I was just stating the obvious. The Media MAFIAA® is the only suspect with any real motive. "

          Not true. The Pirate Bay are making money from widespread copyright infringement. That puts them in the black market economic pool as some pretty unpleasant individuals and groups. They just attacked others who were copying their site and these others are not necessarily nice people. And they hit back. That's a more likely scenario given the timing and the unliklihood of content producers organizing an illegal DDOS.

          "Obtaining actual forensic evidence to prove this, however, would require someone in the US government to actually care, and that's rather difficult when it's living in the Media MAFIAA's pocket"

          Actually, the first step would be The Pirate Bay actually reporting the crime to the appropriate authorities. As far as I am aware, they have not done so, just as they could have gone to the appropriate authorities to complain about their IP being copied by other parties the other week but did not - for the obvious reason that having built a business model on other people's IP, the irony of seeking the protection of the law against their own IP being taken, would have put them on levels of hypocricy that would make Jeremy Hunt blush with embarrasment.

  9. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Was dead across the Pond in The Virginia Colonies too this morning

  10. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Apparently Demonoid was down at approximately for about the same amount of time and during the same time as TPB.

  11. Joerg

    Uploading torrents on pirate bay is not possible since over three months ago...

    ...when they changed their rules for magnet torrent files they stopped accepting torrent files.

    Whoever is still uploading torrents to their database surely aren't normal users, normal people.

    Their uploading form just doesn't work and will always refuse any torrent file whatever the size, trackers and description.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      IT Angle

      Re: Uploading torrents on pirate bay is not possible since over three months ago...

      Um. I'm not clued up on this. I occasionally download a Linux distro for pc repairs. But I think you might need a "magnet" link now. Torrents are the old type of Bit torrent file linking thingies. Magnets still use torrents, but they are the new linky thingies.

  12. Anonymous Coward
    Joke

    Turn this into something good!

    The fact that DDoS data could reach the Piratebay means that there are still kiddies out there who can use their services and download for free! Even though our freedom abiding "copyleft organizations" have paid, errr: /persuaded/, many judges in many countries to enforce a blockade.

    And so a real crime has been committed here. I'm not talking about kids extorting companies ("pay up or loose your site / services") or hinder the government (look it up in the news). That's old stuff and not important. No; they can actually still access the dreaded Piratebay! OMG!

    So "copyright and freedom protecting" organizations (yes, I'm talking about YOU: Brein, riaa, buma/stemra, etc.): the fight is on. And your target is the source of the DDoS stream because there are people who download for free!

    (tip: they shut down the piratebay so they could download even MORE!).

    ....if this doesn't get those kiddies shut down then /nothing/ will ;-)

    And you know the sad part? Even though I wrote all this up as a joke I think it could actually hold some truth as well.

  13. The Grinning Duck
    Paris Hilton

    I'm confused

    How do Anonymous know Anonymous didn't do it? The more I think about that, the more my head hurts.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: I'm confused

      Easy. The fact that you don't know who I really am, does not mean that I don't know who I really am.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: I'm confused

        Your analogy would hold if Anonymous was a single person. It's not*, so it doesn't.

        *As far as I (we?) know.

  14. Sam Therapy
    Unhappy

    Still MIA from here in sunny South Yorkshire.

    Even through a German proxy.

    Biscuits of arse.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Still MIA from here in sunny South Yorkshire.

      So how about google "site:thepiratebay.se +searchterm" results? Now that you only need a magnet link, the cached page has everything you want, unlike previously when you'd still have had to be able to click through to the real site to download the .torrent file.

      Clever, these pirates. Yo-ho-ho and all that :)

  15. P. Lee
    Childcatcher

    Hack! Billions lost! Sue them all!

    Oh wait... users just retry a bit later. DDOS doesn't bring the world to its knees after all. More like a traffic jam on the way to the shops.

  16. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Accessible via other routes

    http://piratebayuk.co.uk/

  17. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Rats

    I have a whole bunch of [cough]Linux distro's[cough] to download...

  18. Zack Mollusc
    Alert

    Crazy times

    I am exhausted. I work at a major distributor's warehouse and we have been doing a triple shift trying to keep up with the deluge of orders. We have only stopped because the warehouses are freaking EMPTY, man!

    My buddy Bob works on the retail side and he says every single store is the same, crowds of weeping freetards grabbing armfulls of cds, dvds, blurays and shoving and pushing their way to the tills, maxing their credit cards out. Gonna be some big, big bonuses handed out to the CEOs this month.

  19. Muckminded

    I, too, like to post

    and am bored, drunk, disabused, overly tolerant and ambiguously intolerant as the mood hits.

    But I'm gnawing on bones here. Not even enough to make soup out of. The Pirate Bay is name-only now. A ghostly sphincter of the former digestive system it was.

    Um, yay for the web!?

  20. Unavowed
    Stop

    Pirate Pay

    It was Pirate Pay showing off its capabilities.

    http://www.piratepay.ru/en

  21. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Or more like DOA for several days and counting...

    Poor, poor TPB. When will they learn?

  22. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    It is not DDoS

    It can't be, because if you can find a working route to it the site is working lightning fast. Something else is happening here. I have used VPN exit points from

    London

    Moscow

    Holland

    Poland

    and Romania

    and every time access to the site is instant and the site is faster than ever, less stressed than usual in fact.

    There is something else going on here. DNS poisoning perhaps? Or corporate network 'reconfiguration'?

    1. Matt Bryant Silver badge
      Happy

      Re: It is not DDoS

      So, how do you know you're actually ending up on the "legit" Pirate Bay? For all you know, you just popped out on either (a) a tracking server set up by the RIAA types to log access whilst the real TPB is offline, or (b) a nasty Russian site full of virii/trojans which are now turning your PC into a zombie. If someone was going to DDoS TPB they could also poison DNS entries to point to a decoy.....

  23. JDX Gold badge

    "Stronger than ever"

    So their single tech 'guru' has (now they woke him up) already done something to improve their infrastructure? Fast work.

  24. Lee Dowling Silver badge

    How can anyone say it wasn't Anonymous, given that Anonymous don't know who its members are anyway? This is the stupid thing I hate about that group. It isn't a group. Anybody and everybody can claim things in the name of Anonymous and there's no way to prove positive or negative.

    So the assertion "we can be sure it wasn't Anonymous" is a lot of tripe.

    1. Matt Bryant Silver badge
      Facepalm

      Re: Lee Dowling

      "How can anyone say it wasn't Anonymous...." They can because, despite all their posturing to the contrary, the Anonyputzs are just a load of sheep all being herded by a few, and it is those few (the non-leaders that actually are the leaders) who get to say who is Anonymous and who isn't.

  25. fLaMePrOoF
    Holmes

    I would have thought these guys would be firmly in the frame for this...

    http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/05/13/pirate_pay_dos_against_torrents/

  26. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Best. Catchprase. Ever!

    “We were loling just like you, then we took an ddos to the knee. But now we're getting back up! Stronger than ever!”

    on a serious note, sounds like this is the work of the government if anything.

    1. JimmyPage Silver badge
      FAIL

      Work of government !?

      on any given day, the frontpage of El Reg will have at least one story about a failed government (usually UK) IT project.

      The one thing I don't worry about is the government trying to hack me. Mangle my tax return, lose my data, yes. But actually *hack* me ?

  27. A n o n y m o u s

    I didn't do it.

  28. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Neither did I - arrrrr.

  29. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Strange thing is....

    ..before it was blocked by the courts in the UK a number of the trackers would time out when I downloaded my "Linux distros". Now, when I go through a proxy (a UK proxy at that) all the trackers come up first time and the downloads seem to be about 25% faster. So thank you judge you have made my life much easier. Now I don't have to wait nearly as long to update my "Linux". ;-)

    1. Aggellos
      Stop

      Re: Strange thing is.... you're lying

      STOP i am having to stab myself in the leg to stop my head falling off from laughter.

      1. Torrents are the best way to download distros ? bullshit

      2. I need to download new distros every day 6 times because it's cool? bullshit

      3. PIRATEBAY is the best place for torrents.? bullshit

      4. PIRATEBAY is the only place for torrents.? bullshit

      1. Rovindi
        Windows

        Re: Strange thing is.... you're lying

        The clue was in the of speech marks - "distros". Obviously the OP was referring to other material. Do keep up.

        TPB fine and dandy in sunny, sunny Spain. Still, Rajoy (the bastard) is going to change the copyright/pirate law soon, so I`ll have to cover my tracks. Here,currently, you cannot be prosecuted for downloading gazillions of vids, music etc. It`s all very odd and very Spanish.

  30. Qdos
    Pint

    Following in the footsteps of Megaupload...

    Nuf' said... end of...

  31. Dick Emery
    IT Angle

    Don't forget...

    ...it's www.thepiratebay.se so if you are using .org (now a redirector to .se) maybe that is causing issues?

  32. John I'm only dancing

    Google

    Those nice people kindly cache all the Pirate Bay pages so you can still access it.

  33. MikeyD85
    Thumb Up

    Last night

    I couldn't access it on Be*, but it was fine on T-Mobile mobile broadband. I found that odd.

    Still, this pushed me in to using Redirector on the Chrome Store to redirect tpb.se > one of it's proxies automatically for me. It even appends the path. Lovely!

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Last night

      I found both Pirate Bay and Wikileaks unavailable last night (~0500 GMT today) using Cox Communications in US and either the .org or the .se name. Neither the names nor the addresses worked. PB was available and responsive using either name or IP address when I switched to TOR; Wikileaks still was unavailable. All is well for both sites this morning. Perhaps some muscles are being flexed for practice.

      1. Rovindi
        Windows

        Re: Last night

        Boils my piss that peeps that use TOR for torrents, although not suggesting that you are. Sure, I am a very naughty boy and snaffle things, but TOR was built for different reasons, very decent and worthy ones at.

        Also, TBH, using TOR ain`t necessarily going to cover your tracks.

        https://blog.torproject.org/blog/bittorrent-over-tor-isnt-good-idea

  34. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Attack of the M$ botnet

    is M$/FBI allowed to use that botnet it supposedly took down to carry out such Dos attacks?

    its that or the RIA/Mafiaa is abusing the Orbital Ion Cannon...

  35. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Crims headed for the pokey

    TPB will have more issues before the dust settles but someone punished them.

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