Denial-of-service attack downed Gawker Media
Hackers launched a distributed denial-of-service (DDOS) attack that sporadically downed popular blog network Gawker Media over the weekend and on Monday, the company confirmed in a blog post early Tuesday morning.
When CNET News spoke to Gawker Media representatives on Monday, they were not yet sure what was causing the outages but had not ruled out malicious behavior.
The attacks appear to have been launched at Consumerist, a blog that Gawker sold to Consumer Reports last year but which is still hosted on the same servers. The motivation behind them is not yet clear.
The New York-based Gawker Media has sold or merged a number of its blog titles over the past few years, but it remains the parent company of several extremely high-profile blogs--often with an edgy gossip angle--like Gizmodo, Jezebel, and the eponymous Gawker.com.
DDOS attacks occur when hackers swamp a site with excess pings from multiple sources to bring it down; they can knock out entire hosting companies.
Caroline McCarthy, a CNET News staff writer, is a downtown Manhattanite happily addicted to social-media tools and restaurant blogs. Her pre-CNET resume includes interning at an IT security firm and brewing cappuccinos. E-mail Caroline. 
The page seems to have some strange snippets of JavaScript, and a refresh, but the site eventually loads after a good few refreshes...
It appears to happen at random, sometimes a request will happen instantly, sometimes it does the auto-refreshing thing.
It is either that or it is some strange (and rather inefficient) method of finding a server.
Code below for those interested
<HTML><HEAD><META HTTP-EQUIV="Refresh" CONTENT="0"><SCRIPT Language="JavaScript">var coupon1=@@@@@@@@@@;var co 209201972@@@@@@;var st 89954958@@@@@;var st 44500021@@@@@;var ad 506812821+coupon2+style1+style2;document.cookie="NSC_DOSP="+add+";path=/";window.location=window.location.href;window.focus();</SCRIPT></HEAD></HTML>
- by Eludium-Q36 August 4, 2009 9:18 AM PDT
- Hmm, let's see, Black Hat / Defcon just recently concluded then this happens. Someone take a DDOS workshop seminar a little seriously ? Looking for extra credit ?
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