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Rather than seeking a technical solution, I wonder if there is a social one. If Google promised to upweight DDOSed articles in their (news) rankings in perpetu

Rather than seeking a technical solution, I wonder if there is a social one. If Google promised to upweight DDOSed articles in their (news) rankings in perpetuity, that's a strong incentive not to DDOS. It also makes sense that material one person is spending resource trying to suppress is extremely likely to be interesting to others, so it's not necessarily a bad experience for someone using the Google news. Obviously, in the short term it's also useful if they can link to a cached copy that is still working. A systemic Streisand effect.

Iv 10y ago
> If Google promised to upweight DDOSed articles in their (news) rankings in perpetuity, that's a strong incentive not to DDOS. That would actually be a strong incentive to DDOS yourself!
- enraged_camel 10y ago
  Yeah, SEO "experts" would jump on that!
- jimmytidey 10y ago
  That's true. Although institutions deal with that kind of moral hazard in insurance all the time, so perhaps similar mechanisms could be applied here. Perhaps sites uprated for having been DDOSed could be marked as such. We already have to make many decisions about the trustworthiness of news sources, so maybe it's just another factor. I can also see why Google would just like to make DDOSing very hard and make the whole problem go away, rather than the mechanism I'm proposing. That said, I think there's something gratifying about using an attacker's willingness and ability to commit resource to removing information as a signal about the value of that information. Judo chop!
  - TeMPOraL 10y ago
    > Perhaps sites uprated for having been DDOSed could be marked as such. We already have to make many decisions about the trustworthiness of news sources, so maybe it's just another factor. Then I'll DDoS your already highly-ranked site just to trigger the "untrustworthy" mark for it in the results. The problem with going social is the infinite capability of humans to game things like that. I strongly sympathize with the desire to "make the whole problem go away" instead.
metaphorm 10y ago
> Rather than seeking a technical solution, I wonder if there is a social one. there's always a social solution if you're enough of a utopian idealist. why do we go to war? isn't there a social solution? can't we all just get along? technology steps in and makes the ground truth of the situation something incontrovertible and not subject to social disagreement. we need it specifically because we cannot rely on social solutions.

Iv 10y ago

> If Google promised to upweight DDOSed articles in their (news) rankings in perpetuity, that's a strong incentive not to DDOS. That would actually be a strong incentive to DDOS yourself!

enraged_camel 10y ago
Yeah, SEO "experts" would jump on that!
jimmytidey 10y ago
That's true. Although institutions deal with that kind of moral hazard in insurance all the time, so perhaps similar mechanisms could be applied here. Perhaps sites uprated for having been DDOSed could be marked as such. We already have to make many decisions about the trustworthiness of news sources, so maybe it's just another factor. I can also see why Google would just like to make DDOSing very hard and make the whole problem go away, rather than the mechanism I'm proposing. That said, I think there's something gratifying about using an attacker's willingness and ability to commit resource to removing information as a signal about the value of that information. Judo chop!
- TeMPOraL 10y ago
  > Perhaps sites uprated for having been DDOSed could be marked as such. We already have to make many decisions about the trustworthiness of news sources, so maybe it's just another factor. Then I'll DDoS your already highly-ranked site just to trigger the "untrustworthy" mark for it in the results. The problem with going social is the infinite capability of humans to game things like that. I strongly sympathize with the desire to "make the whole problem go away" instead.

metaphorm 10y ago

> Rather than seeking a technical solution, I wonder if there is a social one. there's always a social solution if you're enough of a utopian idealist. why do we go to war? isn't there a social solution? can't we all just get along? technology steps in and makes the ground truth of the situation something incontrovertible and not subject to social disagreement. we need it specifically because we cannot rely on social solutions.