Well, Damn

[clocketpatch]

You've probably already heard, but LJ's recent DoS attacks are apparently being perpetuated by the Russian government in order to force anti-corruption bloggers onto other websites where they can be more easily shut down.

I should also mention that there was a key-logger on lj that tried getting past my Firewall just shortly before all of this began, so do be making sure you've got anti-virus/a good firewall/adBlock people. Since the aim of these attacks seems to be shutting to site off permanently, copying your journal to somewhere like DW is probably a good idea. I've got one invite if anyone wants it.

All that said... this makes me fonder of LJ then I've been since the whole Facebook debacle. In the interest of freedom of speech (and, let's not lie, my own laziness), I'm not migrating at the moment.


http://globalpost.com/dispatches/globalpost-blogs/bric-yard/russian-blog-site-under-attack


http://putinwatcher.blogspot.com/2011/04/cyber-war-on-russian-activist-bloggers.html

(links taken from THIS post)

Comments

[jjpor.livejournal.com]

I agree - I agree completely. Backing stuff up is prudent, but I think moving somewhere else now would just be giving in. We'll fight them together! By squeeing about Doctor Who! That'll show 'em!

[clocketpatch]

THE TRIUMPH OF INTELLECT AND ROMANCE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


or something. :D

[jjpor.livejournal.com]

Yes, DOWN WITH BRUTE FORCE AND CYNICISM!

[alto2.livejournal.com]

I don't buy that it's the government, in no small part because Medvedev has an LJ (also because it's just too stupid--block the site if you want, a la China, but LJ is global, not Russian, even if a helluva lot of Russians use it. It's a rotten PR move. And if anyone's good at the PR, it's the (ex-)Communist countries.

I would totally buy that a group like Nashi, the pro-Putin youth group who are, IMHO, adorably insane, would do something like this to try to help their pal out. But I just don't buy it as a government action. Not yet, anyway.

I do, however, completely agree that it's bullshit and that it's a rather frightening example of how much some people don't give a toss about free speech (or are, in fact, entirely threatened by it).

[clocketpatch]

You gave the link to the Nashi giant birthday blanket right? I hadn't heard of the group before, but based on that level of craziness alone... yeah, I can see that.

[alto2.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that was me. That was actually the first time I heard about them, and I was IMing with Nikita and sent him the link. His reply was basically The Eyeroll You Could See From Moscow with Typical Weird Nikita Russian Wisdom, which I paraphrased (though it was essentially quoting) for a friend as:

He says this is one of the brightest forms of evil and there is no reason to pay attention to it because it is just a usual evil thing. His advice is don't think about it, and don't pay attention. He says they are terrible from the idea point of view but the other groups are even scarier. "There is nowhere to go."

The scariest thing about Nashi is that they're all too young to remember Communist Russia, which means that they are the perfect vehicle to turn the place back into...Communist Russia.

[pitry.livejournal.com]

I don't know. As long as they try and maintain the façade of democracy there are rules that they have to play by, and this is the kind of thing they can't do officially.

[alto2.livejournal.com]

You certainly have a point, though if you look again you'll see that I'm not necessarily disagreeing with you. I said I don't buy it--yet. I'd like something a little more like confirmation first. The first article is just reporting speculation, and the second link elaborates to say that the bloggers are not accusing "the government," they're accusing Nashi. Which...is also what I said. To what degree Nashi is an arm of the government is debatable to some extent. They certainly aren't official, but they think Putin is the Second Coming, so that may not matter. They'd be the perfect way of doing something unofficially--load them up with the idea that there are Bad People on LJ and let 'em rip. Though, when 4.5 million of your citizens use LJ, you gotta figure a decent percentage of Nashi would, too. ::shrug:: There are lots of possibilities.

[pitry.livejournal.com]

Yeah, you're right.
It's just that - well, like you said. Sometimes they don't even have to be the ones doing it, silent agreement is all they need and there's someone out there who'd do it for them. We get that specific strategy a lot in my country, too. *sigh*

[greatbriton.livejournal.com]

This shit is so crazy

[clocketpatch]

Agreed and agreed!

[eve11]

is it easy to port your whole lj to a dw account? or do you have to go post by post or something?

[clocketpatch]

It's easy. They've got an import feature where you just plug in your name and password and then wait a few minutes. It preserves your friend settings too from what I can tell.

[dbskyler.livejournal.com]

How did you know about the key-logger? Did your virus software warn you?

[clocketpatch]

I run NoScript and it popped up that a new frame was trying to execute followed swiftly by my Norton telling me that someone was trying to click jack me. O_o

It happened while filling out a ReCaptcha so it is possible that's not lj related at all and I didn't think about it at the time, but then these DoS attacks started so... I figured I should warn in case its not an isolated incident.

[sbmshaneomaniac.livejournal.com]

I will take you up on that invite, if you don't mind.

Got way too much stuff on my journal to lose.

[clocketpatch]

WYVZ8ZQGW6FQ4AAANA8V

There you go.