5 ms·

Project Shield: DDoS Protection by Google for news and human rights orgs

136 points by david_shaw 11y ago

jacquesm 11y ago
CloudFlare has extensive anti DDoS measures as well.
- ceejayoz 11y ago
  And a harder (in the good way) line on freedom of speech. They've been criticized for hosting sites from Anonymous to ISIS/Al-Qaeda. Media organizations should find a pretty good partner in them.
  - x5n1 11y ago
    Google acting for this sort of thing is right in line with their association with the Council for Foreign Relations which basically runs foreign policy in the United States. http://www.cfr.org/staff/b13037 http://www.cfr.org/staff/b13037
- justincormack 11y ago
  And a free programme for at-risk organizations https://www.cloudflare.com/galileo https://www.cloudflare.com/galileo
moepstar 11y ago
This seems to only be for human rights orgs, news and election -related sites. https://projectshield.withgoogle.com/public/#application-form https://projectshield.withgoogle.com/public/#application-for...
- dang 11y ago
  Thanks, we updated the title to say that.
ddon 11y ago
Can't open :) looks like it is under DDOS :)
funkyy 11y ago
Did Google just closed similar service that was intended to speed up sites and secure them against attacks? How anyone can trust Google if they just keep closing useful services without blinking an eye.
kriro 11y ago
""" So far we’ve protected hundreds of news organizations and human rights websites that have faced attacks aimed at censoring free expression. By protecting these sites, we’ve helped to keep vital information online during elections, major crises and conflicts. """ The "major crisis" part of that sentence might be overlooked by some people but it's actually pretty important. It's a well known problem that accidental DDoS happens during crisis situations (if you read a lot of crisis related academic papers you'll see Twitter infrastructure mentioned as very valuable for news updates). The Germanwings crash was a recent example, the official sites were accidentally DDosed and Twitter served as an emergency news propagation platform. The nasty thing about a crisis is that you usually have your hands full with all sorts of other stuff and keeping up web infrastructure slides down on the todo list and/or it comes unexpected and IT isn't prepared. It's often not part of regular planning (this is changing a bit). So yeah I hope they open it up for other organizations and "switching it on" will become a reasonably fast process.
- codecondo 11y ago
  How do you accidentally DDoS something?
  - jnsaff2 11y ago
    Slashdot effect or more recently HN Effect. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slashdot_effect http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slashdot_effect
    - codecondo 11y ago
      Interesting, I thought OP actually meant actual DDoS. This just seems like a problem of server configuration, lack of resources. Not accidental DDoS.
      - breakingcups 11y ago
        It's a denial of service (DoS) caused by multiple clients from different origins (D), is it not? No one means to disrupt the service by visiting it but the combined weight of all clients still leads to just that.
SEJeff 11y ago
Seems like this is going to be a huge blow for cloudflare if they open this up past the initial scope.
- andrewstuart2 11y ago
  I'd be surprised. I don't know the guys there but I suspect they're pretty sharp and will find great ways to distinguish their offerings.
- xxdesmus 11y ago
  This was originally announced in October 2013 by the way. CloudFlare is still doing OK so far.
adrianbg 11y ago
The front lines are online.
themeek 11y ago
Please also see the reams of discussion in this thread from earlier today: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9679674 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9679674
xxdesmus 11y ago
2013 -> http://www.forbes.com/sites/andygreenberg/2013/10/21/googles-project-shield-will-offer-free-cyberattack-protection-to-hundreds-of-at-risk-sites/ http://www.forbes.com/sites/andygreenberg/2013/10/21/googles...
calvintennant 11y ago
"for people who wants to censor" AAARRRRGH. Grammar.
deleted 11y ago
[deleted]
paulhauggis 11y ago
I wonder if they will support news sites that don't align with their political views.
- paulhauggis 11y ago
  What I said is the truth. Google has been known to sensor pages based on political view points and not sensor in the same situation when it is in their favor. I forgot. Too many google employees here on HN.
  - groby_b 11y ago
    [citation needed]
    - paulhauggis 11y ago
      http://thesop.org/story/politics/2009/11/25/outrage-google-censors-michelle-obama-monkey-pic.php http://thesop.org/story/politics/2009/11/25/outrage-google-c... Google censored Michelle Obama monkey pictures. While this is in poor taste, all of the Bush monkey pics were never censored. Even worse were the results for Santorum, which I'm sure the employees of Google thought was hilarious. More recently: http://www.thenewamerican.com/tech/computers/item/20408-google-s-new-algorithm-modern-version-of-old-fashioned-censorship http://www.thenewamerican.com/tech/computers/item/20408-goog... "The truth algorithm that Google researchers are developing will compare websites to a vast store of information the corporation has been compiling over the years" Almost nothing in this world is black and white. When one organization decides that they have the the best version of the "truth", it's pretty scary. Facebook also censors with political motivation: http://dailycaller.com/2014/10/20/facebook-marks-yahoo-story-on-crowd-walking-out-of-obama-speech-as-spam/ http://dailycaller.com/2014/10/20/facebook-marks-yahoo-story... The Obama campaign even used spam techniques during the campaign: http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2012/10/03/obama-to-supporters-spam-facebook-twitter/ http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2012/10/03/obama-to-... Facebook allowed it during his campaign, but have since changed the rules. If anyone else did this, the campaign would have been shut down immediately. I guess I shouldn't be surprised, since Zuckerberg even tried to get his employees to read the propaganda filled book by the Chinese president: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/worldviews/wp/2014/12/08/why-does-mark-zuckerberg-want-facebook-employees-to-read-the-chinese-presidents-book/ http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/worldviews/wp/2014/12/08... It's just more examples of political leaders being in bed with our media companies. Everybody talks about corruption and the 1%, but nobody seems to care about this.
junto 11y ago
Devils advocate here. Would wikileaks qualify?
lucb1e 11y ago
Page is completely blank for me with some darkblue background. Any idea what's going on? (Using the Tor browser, if that helps.)
draugadrotten 11y ago
Isn't Google creating an indirect security risk for the reader here by funneling all sensitive HTTP accesses through one service? Google logs will now have information on who is reading human rights material that is in need of protection from censorship. If someone sets out to index the readership, it's now sufficient to get the whole list of readers from Google by legal or illegal means.
- kpcyrd 11y ago
  Same thing applies to cloudflare. Even HN is proxied through them and connections are decrypted at their servers. Looks like nobody cares.

136 points by david_shaw 11y ago

jacquesm 11y ago

CloudFlare has extensive anti DDoS measures as well.

ceejayoz 11y ago
And a harder (in the good way) line on freedom of speech. They've been criticized for hosting sites from Anonymous to ISIS/Al-Qaeda. Media organizations should find a pretty good partner in them.
- x5n1 11y ago
  Google acting for this sort of thing is right in line with their association with the Council for Foreign Relations which basically runs foreign policy in the United States. http://www.cfr.org/staff/b13037 http://www.cfr.org/staff/b13037
justincormack 11y ago
And a free programme for at-risk organizations https://www.cloudflare.com/galileo https://www.cloudflare.com/galileo

moepstar 11y ago

This seems to only be for human rights orgs, news and election -related sites. https://projectshield.withgoogle.com/public/#application-form https://projectshield.withgoogle.com/public/#application-for...

dang 11y ago
Thanks, we updated the title to say that.

ddon 11y ago

Can't open :) looks like it is under DDOS :)

funkyy 11y ago

Did Google just closed similar service that was intended to speed up sites and secure them against attacks? How anyone can trust Google if they just keep closing useful services without blinking an eye.

kriro 11y ago

""" So far we’ve protected hundreds of news organizations and human rights websites that have faced attacks aimed at censoring free expression. By protecting these sites, we’ve helped to keep vital information online during elections, major crises and conflicts. """ The "major crisis" part of that sentence might be overlooked by some people but it's actually pretty important. It's a well known problem that accidental DDoS happens during crisis situations (if you read a lot of crisis related academic papers you'll see Twitter infrastructure mentioned as very valuable for news updates). The Germanwings crash was a recent example, the official sites were accidentally DDosed and Twitter served as an emergency news propagation platform. The nasty thing about a crisis is that you usually have your hands full with all sorts of other stuff and keeping up web infrastructure slides down on the todo list and/or it comes unexpected and IT isn't prepared. It's often not part of regular planning (this is changing a bit). So yeah I hope they open it up for other organizations and "switching it on" will become a reasonably fast process.

codecondo 11y ago
How do you accidentally DDoS something?
- jnsaff2 11y ago
  Slashdot effect or more recently HN Effect. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slashdot_effect http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slashdot_effect
  - codecondo 11y ago
    Interesting, I thought OP actually meant actual DDoS. This just seems like a problem of server configuration, lack of resources. Not accidental DDoS.
    - breakingcups 11y ago
      It's a denial of service (DoS) caused by multiple clients from different origins (D), is it not? No one means to disrupt the service by visiting it but the combined weight of all clients still leads to just that.

SEJeff 11y ago

Seems like this is going to be a huge blow for cloudflare if they open this up past the initial scope.

andrewstuart2 11y ago
I'd be surprised. I don't know the guys there but I suspect they're pretty sharp and will find great ways to distinguish their offerings.
xxdesmus 11y ago
This was originally announced in October 2013 by the way. CloudFlare is still doing OK so far.

adrianbg 11y ago

The front lines are online.

themeek 11y ago

Please also see the reams of discussion in this thread from earlier today: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9679674 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9679674

xxdesmus 11y ago

2013 -> http://www.forbes.com/sites/andygreenberg/2013/10/21/googles-project-shield-will-offer-free-cyberattack-protection-to-hundreds-of-at-risk-sites/ http://www.forbes.com/sites/andygreenberg/2013/10/21/googles...

calvintennant 11y ago

"for people who wants to censor" AAARRRRGH. Grammar.

deleted 11y ago

[deleted]

paulhauggis 11y ago

I wonder if they will support news sites that don't align with their political views.

paulhauggis 11y ago
What I said is the truth. Google has been known to sensor pages based on political view points and not sensor in the same situation when it is in their favor. I forgot. Too many google employees here on HN.
- groby_b 11y ago
  [citation needed]
  - paulhauggis 11y ago
    http://thesop.org/story/politics/2009/11/25/outrage-google-censors-michelle-obama-monkey-pic.php http://thesop.org/story/politics/2009/11/25/outrage-google-c... Google censored Michelle Obama monkey pictures. While this is in poor taste, all of the Bush monkey pics were never censored. Even worse were the results for Santorum, which I'm sure the employees of Google thought was hilarious. More recently: http://www.thenewamerican.com/tech/computers/item/20408-google-s-new-algorithm-modern-version-of-old-fashioned-censorship http://www.thenewamerican.com/tech/computers/item/20408-goog... "The truth algorithm that Google researchers are developing will compare websites to a vast store of information the corporation has been compiling over the years" Almost nothing in this world is black and white. When one organization decides that they have the the best version of the "truth", it's pretty scary. Facebook also censors with political motivation: http://dailycaller.com/2014/10/20/facebook-marks-yahoo-story-on-crowd-walking-out-of-obama-speech-as-spam/ http://dailycaller.com/2014/10/20/facebook-marks-yahoo-story... The Obama campaign even used spam techniques during the campaign: http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2012/10/03/obama-to-supporters-spam-facebook-twitter/ http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2012/10/03/obama-to-... Facebook allowed it during his campaign, but have since changed the rules. If anyone else did this, the campaign would have been shut down immediately. I guess I shouldn't be surprised, since Zuckerberg even tried to get his employees to read the propaganda filled book by the Chinese president: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/worldviews/wp/2014/12/08/why-does-mark-zuckerberg-want-facebook-employees-to-read-the-chinese-presidents-book/ http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/worldviews/wp/2014/12/08... It's just more examples of political leaders being in bed with our media companies. Everybody talks about corruption and the 1%, but nobody seems to care about this.

junto 11y ago

Devils advocate here. Would wikileaks qualify?

lucb1e 11y ago

Page is completely blank for me with some darkblue background. Any idea what's going on? (Using the Tor browser, if that helps.)

draugadrotten 11y ago

Isn't Google creating an indirect security risk for the reader here by funneling all sensitive HTTP accesses through one service? Google logs will now have information on who is reading human rights material that is in need of protection from censorship. If someone sets out to index the readership, it's now sufficient to get the whole list of readers from Google by legal or illegal means.

kpcyrd 11y ago
Same thing applies to cloudflare. Even HN is proxied through them and connections are decrypted at their servers. Looks like nobody cares.