Wikileaks kicked out of Amazon's cloud - BOYCOTT AMAZON
Krop | 01.12.2010 21:24 | Other Press | World
Amazon took less than a day to bow to pressure and stopped hosting Wikileaks. The best response is to boycott Amazon in response.
The Wikileaks website migrated to Amazon's cloud hosting service yesterday after being hit by a distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack. Amazon decided to discontinue serving the controversial website this morning in response to pressure from critics, including prominent members of Congress.
Wikileaks has received significant attention over the past week after publishing thousands of confidential diplomatic cables between the US State Department and embassies around the world. The documents, a portion of which are classified, expose US intelligence gathering efforts and details about sensitive foreign policy issues. The response from various US government officials has ranged from panic to outrage.
A DDoS attack launched against Wikileaks overwhelmed the site's Swedish hosting provider, forcing them to seek alternatives. The DDoS, which reportedly generated approximately 10 gigabits per second of bogus traffic, is thought to have been orchestrated with a botnet. A hacker calling himself "Jester" has claimed responsibility for the takedown.
Senator Joe Lieberman (I-CT), chairman of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, was among the congressmen who pressured Amazon to stop hosting Wikileaks. He told AFP this morning that he plans to question Amazon about its relationship with Wikileaks.
"WikiLeaks' illegal, outrageous, and reckless acts have compromised our national security and put lives at risk around the world," he told AFP. "No responsible company—whether American or foreign—should assist WikiLeaks in its efforts to disseminate these stolen materials."
The site was down briefly after being ejected from Amazon, but is back up and once again running on the servers of Bahnhof, its previous Swedish hosting provider.
(
http://arstechnica.com/security/news/2010/12/wikileaks-kicked-out-of-amazons-cloud.ars?comments=1#comments-bar)
Wikileaks has received significant attention over the past week after publishing thousands of confidential diplomatic cables between the US State Department and embassies around the world. The documents, a portion of which are classified, expose US intelligence gathering efforts and details about sensitive foreign policy issues. The response from various US government officials has ranged from panic to outrage.
A DDoS attack launched against Wikileaks overwhelmed the site's Swedish hosting provider, forcing them to seek alternatives. The DDoS, which reportedly generated approximately 10 gigabits per second of bogus traffic, is thought to have been orchestrated with a botnet. A hacker calling himself "Jester" has claimed responsibility for the takedown.
Senator Joe Lieberman (I-CT), chairman of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, was among the congressmen who pressured Amazon to stop hosting Wikileaks. He told AFP this morning that he plans to question Amazon about its relationship with Wikileaks.
"WikiLeaks' illegal, outrageous, and reckless acts have compromised our national security and put lives at risk around the world," he told AFP. "No responsible company—whether American or foreign—should assist WikiLeaks in its efforts to disseminate these stolen materials."
The site was down briefly after being ejected from Amazon, but is back up and once again running on the servers of Bahnhof, its previous Swedish hosting provider.
(
http://arstechnica.com/security/news/2010/12/wikileaks-kicked-out-of-amazons-cloud.ars?comments=1#comments-bar)
Krop