http://malaysiakini.com/news/161821
Attacks stop on cue, M'kini full service in stages
Apr 18, 11 4:41pm
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Malaysiakini is gradually bringing all its services back online after attacks on its website ended yesterday, a day after the Sarawak election. Since last Tuesday, Malaysiakini had been forced to block all international traffic to ensure that the denial-of-service (DOS) attack could not reach its servers, while allowing local readers to access the website.
Local readers using Blackberries were also affected as Blackberry routes all traffic through its international servers. Some Malaysiakini services remained unaccessible, such as the popular Comments section.
"We are bringing services up in stages. However, the real challenge is to prevent a recurrence, which we expect as we move closer to the general election," said Malaysiakini CEO Premesh Chandran.
During the 2008 general election, Malaysiakini's domain name server in the US was heavily attacked, starting on the night of election day, as the results became obvious. Malaysiakini's domain became inaccessible at 11pm on March 8, 2008.
This time around, however, the attackers swamped the site with traffic, which drowned legal traffic to the site, preventing access.
Attacks launched in China
Malaysiakini moved its site a few times last Tuesday, however, each new site was also attacked, including a new site in the US. Finally, at 8pm last Tuesday, Malaysiakini made the decision to block all international traffic, until the attack stopped.
The DOS attacks are believed to be launched from servers based in a number of countries, including China.
"Malaysiakini has received many suggestions as to how to prevent further attacks. Suggestions include installing various firewall devices, using Amazon cloud services, hosting the site on US-based servers and using proxy servers to 'clean' traffic coming from attackers, among others.
"We will try to choose the best option. We need to consider that Malaysiakini is now serving 2.3 million unique users per month, of whom 80 percent are in Malaysia.
"Disruptions to trans-Pacific Internet link will affect Malaysiakini if our servers are based in the US. Most US Internet companies have multiple points of presence including Singapore and Hong Kong.
"Alternatively, cloud services can result in delays in content, or become extremely costly as Malaysiakini delivers over one terabyte of data per day.
"There are obviously solutions, we need to find the best one for our situation," added Premesh.
Thanks for donations
Malaysiakini thanks our many readers who responded to our call for donations. Over RM15,000 was collected over the last four days, and Malaysiakini is budgeting RM50,000 in new technology investments.
Attacks stop on cue, M'kini full service in stages
Apr 18, 11 4:41pm
Share 35
Malaysiakini is gradually bringing all its services back online after attacks on its website ended yesterday, a day after the Sarawak election. Since last Tuesday, Malaysiakini had been forced to block all international traffic to ensure that the denial-of-service (DOS) attack could not reach its servers, while allowing local readers to access the website.
Local readers using Blackberries were also affected as Blackberry routes all traffic through its international servers. Some Malaysiakini services remained unaccessible, such as the popular Comments section.
"We are bringing services up in stages. However, the real challenge is to prevent a recurrence, which we expect as we move closer to the general election," said Malaysiakini CEO Premesh Chandran.
During the 2008 general election, Malaysiakini's domain name server in the US was heavily attacked, starting on the night of election day, as the results became obvious. Malaysiakini's domain became inaccessible at 11pm on March 8, 2008.
This time around, however, the attackers swamped the site with traffic, which drowned legal traffic to the site, preventing access.
Attacks launched in China
Malaysiakini moved its site a few times last Tuesday, however, each new site was also attacked, including a new site in the US. Finally, at 8pm last Tuesday, Malaysiakini made the decision to block all international traffic, until the attack stopped.
The DOS attacks are believed to be launched from servers based in a number of countries, including China.
"Malaysiakini has received many suggestions as to how to prevent further attacks. Suggestions include installing various firewall devices, using Amazon cloud services, hosting the site on US-based servers and using proxy servers to 'clean' traffic coming from attackers, among others.
"We will try to choose the best option. We need to consider that Malaysiakini is now serving 2.3 million unique users per month, of whom 80 percent are in Malaysia.
"Disruptions to trans-Pacific Internet link will affect Malaysiakini if our servers are based in the US. Most US Internet companies have multiple points of presence including Singapore and Hong Kong.
"Alternatively, cloud services can result in delays in content, or become extremely costly as Malaysiakini delivers over one terabyte of data per day.
"There are obviously solutions, we need to find the best one for our situation," added Premesh.
Thanks for donations
Malaysiakini thanks our many readers who responded to our call for donations. Over RM15,000 was collected over the last four days, and Malaysiakini is budgeting RM50,000 in new technology investments.
