Reefa Posted March 17, 2015 Share Posted March 17, 2015 This weekend, the BBC’s website was inaccessible to millions of internet users around the world. The first conclusion many people jump to? It must be the work of Anonymous hacktivists, trying to persuade the BBC to bring controversial Top Gear host Jeremy Clarkson back to TV screens after his recent suspension. It might mean life is a lot less exciting, but sometimes there’s a more down-to-earth explanation for things. For instance, cast your mind back a week or so ago – when a number of Apple services, including iTunes and App Store, were inaccessible for about 12 hours, reportedly costing Apple some $25 million in sales. Some reporters contacted me during the Apple blackout asking if I felt malicious hackers were to blame. “Well it could be,” I shrugged. “But chances are it’s just an internal snafu. Maybe someone misconfigured something or tripped over a power cable while hoovering in the server room.” Sure enough, it later transpired that the issue was an internal DNS issue that took some hours to resolve. Sadly, these things can happen – even for huge companies like Apple. And on Saturday, when the BBC website went offline, many were quick to assume that the broadcaster was under attack from hackers annoyed that controversial Top Gear TV show presenter might be for the chop following a highly-publicised “fracas” with a member of the production team. The remaining episodes of this series of Top Gear have been shelved, and there are question marks over the programme’s future. With some 350 million fans around the world (including – it seems – UK Prime Minister David Cameron), it’s understandable that some might be annoyed that it might be the end of the road for the testosterone-fuelled motoring show – but did they really voice their annoyance with a denial-of-service attack? What we do know is that people operating under the banner of Anonymous had rallied behind the #OpBringBackClarkson hashtag and called for Jeremy Clarkson’s reinstatement. And at least one anonymous poster threatened a distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack a few days before the BBC site went down. The remaining episodes of this series of Top Gear have been shelved, and there are question marks over the programme’s future. With some 350 million fans around the world (including – it seems – UK Prime Minister David Cameron), it’s understandable that some might be annoyed that it might be the end of the road for the testosterone-fuelled motoring show – but did they really voice their annoyance with a denial-of-service attack? What we do know is that people operating under the banner of Anonymous had rallied behind the #OpBringBackClarkson hashtag and called for Jeremy Clarkson’s reinstatement. And at least one anonymous poster threatened a distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack a few days before the BBC site went down.http://www.welivesecurity.com/2015/03/16/bbc-website-down-jeremy-clarkson/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.