If you’re internet connection has been slow lately, it may not be your computer’s fault

Global internet slow-down caused by commercial cyberwar

By Will Collette

My internet connections to many of my favorite sites – including Progressive Charlestown – has been slow as molasses in the past few days. So bad, that in some instances, sites simply won’t load.

Apparently, this is collateral damage from a European feud between one company in the business of curbing global spam and another company (and its friends) in the spam business.

It’s being called “the biggest cyberattack ever” and involves an attack by a self-described “internet activist” based in Barcelona called Sven Olaf Kampuis.

Kampuis claims he has organized several companies that have been blacklisted by Spamhaus, an internet service based in Geneva that evaluates web hosts and bans those that it considers to be spammers.

Kampuis and his internet friends formed a group called “Stophaus” and then bombarded Spamhaus with the internet’s most concentrated “distributed denial of service” (DDoS) campaign.

Imagine a dozen or more internet spam companies directing every spam message they deliver worldwide on one spot at one time! It was enough to not only overwhelm Spamhaus, but also disrupted much of the internet.

No Netflix downloads. No Youtube. No cute kitty videos. Long load times for the such fine news sites as the New York Times and Progressive Charlestown.

Kampuis is very proud of his attack. In a rant laced with anti-Semitic and homophobic references, he said that Spamhaus got what it deserved for restricting his right and the right of his buddies to distribute spam as much as they pleased. Kampuis described his political views as “libertarian” (are you listening, Beth?).

Kampuis said his coalition of spammers stopped the attack on Tuesday, but that on-going problems may be due to governments or others who have an interest in continuing the disruption.

As to the merits of Kampuis’s grievances with Spamhaus, I for one am glad to know there are at least some efforts being made to curb the growing plague of spam worldwide. Within the internet industry, Spamhaus seems to have earned some respect.

According to the Daily Beast, “Adam Wosotowsky, a threat researcher at the Internet security firm McAfee, told the Daily Beast said Spamhaus had a good reputation in the cyber-security world. ‘Spamhaus historically is not known for making knee-jerk emotional decisions,’ he said. ‘Generally, Spamhaus tends to be very straightforward as to why they are blocking things. They are not in the business of causing false positives.’”

Hopefully, this feud will either be resolved, or the various internet providers around the world, including those we count on to bring you Progressive Charlestown without disruption, will make the necessary security changes to protect from further attack.