Collateral damage
- TAGS:Anonymous, Church of Scientology, cyberattack, DDoS, Netherlands
- IT TOPICS:Security
Looks like some poor innocent students at a school in the Netherlands were victims in a DDoS attack on the Church of Scientology (COS). A group calling itself Anonymous has started a movement to literally get rid of Scientology. They publicly espouse using legal means to further their project, but the COS website has been attacked by members of the group since COS launched their campaign to force some websites to take down a Tom Cruise video promoting Scientology.
To stop the attacks, the Church of Scientology put in a "clean pipe" technology to filter the attacks before they made it to the server. The way the technology seems to work is by publicizing themselves as the IP to the client's server. Then the company absorbs the attack in their own robust network and passes clean traffic to the client.
However, if you can determine the true IP address of the web server, then you can attack the server directly. And when someone in Anonymous THOUGHT they found that address, they wasted no time in launching the attack. But the IP was wrong. it was actually a school in the Netherlands. Oops...
Look, two things here:
- I don't pretend to know what COS is all about. I know they have some high-profile members and was started by L. Ron Hubbard, but that is about it. But if you are going to produce some video, expect it to get out on the web. If it is your copyrighted material, you have the right to take legal action. But you also have to know that this is going to happen.
- I also don't know much about this group's problem with COS is. But come one people! If you are going to make the Internet your personal playground by launching a DDoS, please make sure your facts are straight!




