3 ms·

Genuine question: What does anyone have to gain from Linode's misfortune? What sort of group would do this?

mwill 11y ago
A competitor seems like a pretty obvious answer. But the vps market is fairly crowded, I can't imagine what attacking a single competitor would actually accomplish.
- rdtsc 11y ago
  > A competitor seems like a pretty obvious answer. I don't know... unless Linode has a large presense in a country where this level of play is expected. I have hard time imagining a large US cloud / hosting company comparible in size or customer base with Linode trying it. There is too high a risk, someone will talkt and reveal it.
- meshko 11y ago
  Why would a competitor hate Atlanta in particular? Must be going after something hosted there.
danieltillett 11y ago
I have been surprised that this sort of approach has not been more common than it has been. It really is a credit to us as a community that this very low hanging fruit has not been exploited more often.
- hellbanner 11y ago
  You're crediting the tech community for not exploiting their abilities? BF Skinner, famous behavioral psychologist, wrote about this in "Beyond Freedom and Dignity" -- that much of positive emotions coming from choosing to do the morally "righteous" action exist because of the capacity for evil.
  - danieltillett 11y ago
    >You're crediting the tech community for not exploiting their abilities? Yes I am :) It would be easy to engage in morally bad behaviour, yet for the most part we don’t. This is a very good.
rdtsc 11y ago
Maybe the some state actor / mafia drug lord... didn't like one of the customers and put enough effort to shut down the whole service. Github was attacked by China before I believe for hosting some firewall by-passing software. Maybe a competitor, but who would bother to go that low? I can't imagine any of the popular ones trying it -- too much risk it will be exposed.
sandaru1 11y ago
It could be a competitor of someone who is using linode for their hosting. Rather than attacking a single server which would be easier to track down, it's probably easier to attack the whole network.
bdcravens 11y ago
May not be the case here, but Bitcoin ransoms are become more common.
jacquesm 11y ago
Usually these are extortion schemes. Pay x bitcoins to this address or else.

mwill 11y ago

A competitor seems like a pretty obvious answer. But the vps market is fairly crowded, I can't imagine what attacking a single competitor would actually accomplish.

rdtsc 11y ago
> A competitor seems like a pretty obvious answer. I don't know... unless Linode has a large presense in a country where this level of play is expected. I have hard time imagining a large US cloud / hosting company comparible in size or customer base with Linode trying it. There is too high a risk, someone will talkt and reveal it.
meshko 11y ago
Why would a competitor hate Atlanta in particular? Must be going after something hosted there.

danieltillett 11y ago

I have been surprised that this sort of approach has not been more common than it has been. It really is a credit to us as a community that this very low hanging fruit has not been exploited more often.

hellbanner 11y ago
You're crediting the tech community for not exploiting their abilities? BF Skinner, famous behavioral psychologist, wrote about this in "Beyond Freedom and Dignity" -- that much of positive emotions coming from choosing to do the morally "righteous" action exist because of the capacity for evil.
- danieltillett 11y ago
  >You're crediting the tech community for not exploiting their abilities? Yes I am :) It would be easy to engage in morally bad behaviour, yet for the most part we don’t. This is a very good.

rdtsc 11y ago

Maybe the some state actor / mafia drug lord... didn't like one of the customers and put enough effort to shut down the whole service. Github was attacked by China before I believe for hosting some firewall by-passing software. Maybe a competitor, but who would bother to go that low? I can't imagine any of the popular ones trying it -- too much risk it will be exposed.

sandaru1 11y ago

It could be a competitor of someone who is using linode for their hosting. Rather than attacking a single server which would be easier to track down, it's probably easier to attack the whole network.

bdcravens 11y ago

May not be the case here, but Bitcoin ransoms are become more common.

jacquesm 11y ago

Usually these are extortion schemes. Pay x bitcoins to this address or else.