https://secure.avaaz.org/act/media.php?press_id=321
*Friday 4th May, 2012* *Avaaz Cyber Attack Ends After 44 Hours * *A Distributed Denial of Service attack on the Avaaz website ended after 44 hours yesterday. Initial inquiries suggest the attack was a 'call of duty' attack using old gaming protocols to turn thousands of computers into stations from which to launch the DDoS effort. The scale of the attack was equivalent to 20 times Avaaz's highest traffic in its history. The Avaaz site went down twice, but only for a total of 14 minutes. Avaaz campaigning was temporarily suspended. * *"We're thrilled that our system held up well even under a very large attack" said Avaaz Executive Director Ricken Patel. "It's a testament to the amazing systems we've been able to build with the support of our membership." * *Alex Reppen, founder and CEO of Datagram, the firm providing hosting and support to the Avaaz site said "This is one of the largest attacks we've seen on one of our clients, and we're proud of having been able to protect Avaaz from serious disruption."* *The FBI has been informed of the attack.* *"We don't know who did this, but we've been told that it’s likely a sophisticated source" added Ricken Patel. Alex Reppen said, "This was a really sustained attack. Forty-four hours without giving up once was pretty incredible." * *When site functioning was assured, Avaaz asked its membership for donations<https://secure.avaaz.org/en/massive_attack_on_avaaz_a/?pr>to help improve security. "When we heard that even larger attacks were possible, and that preparing for them would cost money, we asked our membership for help, and got an amazing response within hours" said Patel. * *ENDS*
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