Various countries have seen the effect of a DDoS attack that managed to take down Wikipedia when the attack was carried out on September 6th. Countries like the U.K., France, Germany, Italy, The Netherlands, Poland and parts of the Middle East were all targeted. The attack was confirmed by Wikipedia on Twitter and they stated they were working on the restoration process. On top of this, the German Wiki account announced that Wikipedia and all its sister projects were down for the time being. The Wikimedia Foundation released a statement and a portion of it read, “As one of the world’s most popular sites, Wikipedia sometimes attracts ‘bad faith’ actors. Along with the rest of the web, we operate in an increasingly sophisticated and complex environment where threats are continuously evolving. Because of this, the Wikimedia communities and Wikimedia Foundation have created dedicated systems and staff to regularly monitor and address risks. If a problem occurs, we learn, we improve, and we prepare to be better for next time.” Although DDoS attacks can have a wide variety of effects depending on the industry it’s targeting, this one specifically threatens the right for users to access and share information freely.
Analyst Notes
If users find themselves victims of a DDoS attack, they should contact their ISP and see if the traffic can be rerouted. If that does not work, users may have to simply wait for the attack to subside and then clean up from there. Firewalls should be checked and restarted at the conclusion of a DDoS attack.
