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Comment by ozh | Hacker News Reader

Call me naive but I fail at imagining why would someone want to DOS Github.

I mean, if you're into this, it's certainly fun to launch DOS attacks against large "evil" things such as government services, large corps and Micro$oft becoz w1ndoz sux0rz, but... Github? Why?

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Can you think of an easier way to negatively impact productivity at nearly every tech startup? There might not be a reason other than simple bullying. In fact, I think these attackers might be the same ones behind that 2048 game.

Or bitcoin! I've always referred to it as a DDoS on engineers.

Others mentioned Github competitors, but I think it could be anyone's competitors. I.e. Your competitor knows you're using github to handle your continuous deployment (or whatever reasons), by bringing github down, they bring you're whole development environment down.

That's just a (dumb) hypothesis. The cost of doing so is probably not worth it.

Isn't the whole point of distributed VCS like git not to rely on a unique root ?

I don't use Git at work (SourceSafe ftw), but if I had to, I would use Github as a long-term backup storage, not as the nexus point of my dev env.

yup i kindof had this same realization as well once cuz i didn't want to sign up for private repos after i'd left the company that paid github subscription...

hard to recreate the logic tho O.o but it was something in the vein of "if i learn to set up git correctly, i shouldnt need a unique root, so what is it then.... a backup with vizualization? I dont need that for a private repo i can use offline tools"

If you value your time, you'll realize github is very cheap. I also particularly like how everyone knows it so adding new contributors is painless.

yea no argument there i just only have 1 or 2 clients a year who do closed-source git so $100 seems like a lot given that i am usually the sole dev

Yes, and not exactly.

Git is federated, as in Jabber. A branch has a place where it lives. If you do something with a particular branch, you need access to the place where it lives but not to anywhere else.

Monotone is distributed, as in Usenet. A branch may only exist on certain servers, but it is not logically tied to any one server (or set of servers). There is a global namespace for branches.

I think other systems (hg) tend to be more like the Git model, because permissions handling is far simpler.

The problem is that github itself agregates value. Issues, Gist, not to mention that various package management systems use github as the repository.

Perhaps you have a botnet and want to test its capability on a "small scale"/unimportant target before unleashing it on a larger target?

Sort of like testing without getting massive amounts of repercussions.

Cred. If your botnet took down github, that's impressive.

Competition would be my first guess. Or an active employee somewhere that doesn't want to use github: "See, it's offline, we should roll out our own solution/keep using what we have". Or just testing out botnet on an appropriately sized target. Or anything else really. There are dozens of valid reasons.

I could only see someone DDoSing other services so that their employer would let them back onto GitHub ;)

Considering that so many software companies use Github for version control, and have it tied into their deployment workflow, it might make sense for Company A (not dependent on Github) to DOS in order to hurt Company B (dependent on Github).

In fact, some software companies run Github on their private servers (https://enterprise.github.com/) that prevents them being affected from a DOS to Github's servers. Granted, these companies probably made the decision to use their private servers for other performance and security reasons as well, but avoiding DOS could very well be a reason.

It is the same thing I've wondered. What has github done to anybody? Is it for the L0lZ? Is it because they happen to host somebody's gaming code, or IRC code that they feel should be taken offline?

Though when you think about it, taking out github is a very effective way to basically kill the productivity of many dev shops. At the place I'm working now, we are basically dead in the water while github is down (can't do deployments, can't merge pull requests, can't run automated testing, etc).

Is it for the L0lZ?

But laughter == good and I don't have to think about ethics and things, right!?

Because, although some DOS attacks follow a 'moral' code (According to whoever's morals are relevant at the time), not every DOS attack does, in the same way that some people steal from those who have less, some people vandalise state property, some launch wars based on lies. In fact, I'd go as far to say that 'bad' things that happen probably don't have a justifiable moral purpose underpinning them more often than not, and that goes for DOS attacks too.

Github hosts a bunch of full websites too. It's not terribly uncommon for an entire hosting provider to be attacked simply because someone doesn't like what one user posted.

This is getting as pernicious as horse thieving in he old west. We should do what they eventually did about it: Concentrated law enforcement. (though the interim plan sounds attractive)

-criminals demanding ransom

-"our agency has received intel that this site is a spawning ground for computer hackers" see: freenode ddos

Yea I was thinking exactly the same thing - DDOS attacking github? There are better things to do with your time.

1) Attack and show'em who's king 2) Ask for money to not repeat the attack 3) ??? 4) PROFIT!!

Malware, DOS, DDOS, etc nowadays is driven by simple and plain crime. Spy's stories are really the exception.

Spy's stories?

NSA and such are really the exception (big one though). There are countless extortion attacks every day.

extortion, see meetup.com recently

Why would someone want to DoS Mozilla's Bugzilla installation? People try monthly or so. Maybe even for similar reasons.

I was wondering the same thing? Maybe Github competitors?

I'm running GitLab and the first thing I think when I read about their DDOS is 'how long before they attack us'. DDOS attacks just cause everyone a lot of pain and it would be great if nobody needed extensive countermeasures, DDOS operators waste everyone's time and resources.

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