Church of Scientology DDoSed - January 2008

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DATE:
2008-01

AFFECTED COUNTRIES:
USA

AFFECTED SITES:
scientology.org and a number of other Scientology-related sites

EFFECT OF ATTACKS:
Site unreachable several times over 8 days.

SOURCE COUNTRY:
n/a

ALLEGED ATTACKERS:
Anonymous (group of _chan (many), Ebaumsworld, Something Awful, Encyclopedia Dramatica, Partyvan, etc. users)

TYPE OF ATTACK:
DDoS

ATTACK SPECIFICS:
Average attack size of 15000 packets/second (5).

EVENT DESCRIPTION:
The attack - known as Project Chanology (3) - was at least partically in response to the Church of Scientology's "act of censorship" in getting a video of Tom Cruise posted by Anonymous removed from YouTube (1). The denial of service attacks were just one part of this assault on the Church, which included real-life protests, prank calls, black faxes, and a range of media condemnations. At some point during the attack, at least the primary website was migrated to Prolexic Technologies (5), a host specializing in DDoS.

URLS:
1. http://news.cnet.com/8301-10789_3-9857666-57.html
2. http://women.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/women/the_way_we_live/article4173635.ece
3. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Chanology
4. http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,325586,00.html
5. http://asert.arbornetworks.com/2008/01/church-of-scientology-ddos-statistics/

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