Steemit: DDoS Attacks - Take it as a compliment
DDoS attacks, frustrating as they are, should be taken as a positive - clearly Steemit, Inc are doing something right.
What has potentially spurred these latest attacks? Cash? Jealousy? Cash?.... Probably.
![title.png](https://steemitimages.com/DQmNeME9VLeSbatW13ESxifh2B13Dzt8s7p45Yau4fuiX1V/title.png)
source and https://smt.steem.io/
Hot off the press
On the 28th of September, @ned released a blog announcing Smart Media Tokens (SMT). This news, along with the whitepaper, was very well received by the Steemit community and articles soon appeared on the Steem Blockchain, and in the News.
Then, on the 3rd of October, Observer.com published an piece named Another Cryptocurrency Venture Aims to Fix Media’s Monetization Problem. Whilst this article, in my opinion, wasn't overly bullish about SMTs, it did provide more visibility to the cryptocurrency, Steem.
Steem has worked well for Steemit. We’ll leave it to readers to judge the quality of the content on the site, but its viewership is strong. Alexa ranks it in the low 2000s of global websites. source
The following day, wired released an article named [The Social Network Doling Out Millions In Emphemral Money(https://www.wired.com/story/the-social-network-doling-out-millions-in-ephemeral-money/), and whilst this story didn't cover SMTs, it has undoubtedly raised the awareness of Steem and Steemit.
Today, Steem’s market capitalization has settled in the vicinity of $294 million. One Steem is worth slightly more than one United States Dollar, and the currency remains a regular presence at the edge of the top 20 most traded digital currencies.
It’s a precipitous rise for a company that just 18 months ago existed only as an idea in the minds of its founders. More than $30 million worth of Steem has been distributed to over 50,000 users since its launch, according to company reports. source
Other articles and blogs on other networks relating to Steem and Steemit also appeared, all of which have increased the number of eyes, some envious, on the platform.
Arise, sir DDoS
Following this news, no more than 48 hours had passed be steemit.com started malfuction, and at times, become completely inaccessible. @steemitblog quickly hashed out a blog stating that this was due to a sustained DDos Attack.
Steemit.com has been subjected to a sustained DDoS attack, that brought down the website for several hours last night and into this morning.
The DDoS attack only affected the Steemit.com website. The blockchain was unaffected, and other websites that interact with the blockchain remained operational during the attack.
The message was clear, steemit.com is taking a hit, but the Steem Blockchain (and your hard work and money) is safe - well, for most people anyway.
Further to the above, the blog also stated:
Several changes have been made to mitigate the attack in the short term, and we are working on several improvements that will make the website more robust to these types of attacks in the future.
Well this sounded quite positive - we'll be back up and running in no time then? Nope.
We are now over two weeks forward in time, and I am currently preparing this article in Notepad and checking the Steemit.com site - which is slow and buggy at present.
Of course, there are alternative ways to make your own history on the Steem Blockchain, and by now, this should be common news to everyone present - lets just keep it a secret from our DDoS attackers, OK?
Why now? Why Steemit.com?
DDos attacks are nothing new, but in recent years they have become larger and more frequent. Help Net Security recently reported that:
Large DDoS attacks over 50 Gbps have quadrupled between 2015 and 2017. source
Further to this, Kaspersky Lab and B2B International revealed:
More than 40% of businesses hit by a distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack worldwide believe their competitors were behind it. source
And, who are the main targets of the attacks? Bookmakers or betting sites, and Banks - the theme is generally related to money.
The recent press regarding Steem, Steemit,inc. and Smart Media Tokens has aroused the interest of the good, and bad people of the world. Talk of the earnings paid out to Steemit members, and the rise of the SMT have made the flagship site a target for sure.
The attackers know there is a large prize pot, one that has been created by Steemit and its members. Protect your keys, ignore the subdued price, and look forward to 2018.
Thanks for reading today
Asher
This is my first article posted with busy.org
Steemit is more user friendly than busy.org. It should be fixed now. Thank you @abh12345
I’ve tried busy.org and I can create a post but I don’t see a way to add picture or video to my post using the site. I searched for a how to on this but haven’t found much in the way of useful info other than people saying they have had trouble posting pics using busy as well.
How did you get the image to appear in this post if you don’t mind me asking? Thanks in advance...
Yeah I was wondering how to do it in busy.
I got the post ready on Steemit - the image was uploaded there so I just copied the lot out into Busy. Had to make a few text adjustments but not too much.
Cheers!
I see. I copied the text from steemit and pasted it to busy but wasn’t sure if the pics would show up because it just appears as text in busy. I’ll give it a try this evening when I post...whatever it is I decide to post. Thanks
imgbb.com
Hello abh12345!
I hope that the ‘effective eager beavers’ in this community will get their heads focused on this issue very soon, and thanks for contributing to the development of the focus.
Here is one bottom line staring us in the face. There is no way that the current frequency of website (Steemit) inaccessibility, extreme slow down, posts being lost or failing to get accepted unless there are resubmissions, will fail to hurt the branding of Steemit. It may not fail to hurt the arrival of new accounts due to our current uniqueness; but let us pray that serious rivals arrive slowly rather than quickly!
Moreover, when Ned goes out next year in search of “SMT recruits”, the existence of this situation at that time is going to cause him to lose quite a bit of sleep. So, it doesn’t matter what he says at Steemfest. It far more matters what he does before he gets into his new marketing program.
Here’s one place to start. I have not experienced any DDos attack effects at various financial institutions, or at various media outlets whose competitors would love to take them down. Beyond my particular experience, I rarely read of these organizations having Ddos attacks that create impacts on their clients’ usage of their websites. So, what are they are doing that Ned is not doing?
Here is another topic. A couple of the other commentators here have mentioned the names of other sites to which one can go when there is trouble at Steemit. So, I am asking whether it is feasible and reasonably affordable to have multiple Steemit ‘nodes’, forcing the DDos attackers to take them all on at the same time. I recognize that I’m getting into hardware and network design issues on which I’m a total ignoramus; but I raise the question anyway.
This comment has received a 18.15 % upvote from @lovejuice thanks to: @abh12345. They love you, so does Aggroed. Please be sure to vote for Witnesses at https://steemit.com/~witnesses.
Long life blockchain. DDoS will not defeat Steem.
I think so too! Jealous eyes are trying their best, but we will not be defeated!
Thanks for your support @tumutanzi
DDoS attacks, but not defeat steem. Agreed.
Thanks for some inspiring words just when I wasn't feeling too great about a lost post last night and not being able to post or comment today at steemit.com.
I'm responding through an other avenue. And yes the future looks bright even with the unwanted attention LOL
Better deal with it now, than when millions more are getting frustrated :-)
Finances forced a power down, so the price of steem hurts too, maybe it will rise before I need to sell ?
Cheers
Yes I agree - although DDoS attacks are hard to fight, hopefully 'they' will get bored soon.
Bad timing to sell now, but needs must. I am hoping to buy tomorrow.
that's for sure, If I had the funds I would be buying like crazy right now. I'll have my work permit soon enough :-)
It's leapt like a frog over a dollar!
Interesting comments, and yes I'm not surprised there are attacks going on, the more successful and the more Truth that is shared then the more others will want to stop Steemit from working. I mean a lot of effort goes into stopping Truth speakers on You Tube and Facebook, so it's to be expected that the same will happen here and if you can't do it on a one by one basis then why not take down the site!! To know is to be fore-armed!
I think it's good that this is being done now and can be resolved and totally sorted before Steemit gets any bigger and the issue would be worse.
Yes your final point is a popular one. The issue is DDoS attacks are difficult to thwart and can last for weeks (almost 3 here already), and there is no stopping it happening again, and again.
Hopefully folks we stay strong and battle through, and the attackers will get bored.
Thanks for you support :)
In my experience those doing attacks don't get bored! We have to find solutions to stop them, and I'm sure Steemit will do this.
Those who value the platform will stick with, but we may loose a few scammers in the process!!
You're welcome, I'm sure Steemit will be stronger for this. :)
I hope so, we will see what @ned says at Steemfest.
Sadly I think the scammers are part of the problem, compromised accounts are hard to 'block' from the site because they have valid accounts.
And I agree, stronger and ready for 2018 😁
Will be interesting to hear what is said at Steemfest.
When a company or technology is challenging what is already in place then attacks are going to happen, so the sooner solutions are found the better! Yes Steemit will be stronger and better for this! :)
Doesn't really mean they're popular lol. I've had some of my affiliate sites with just 1000 unique visitors per day get hit in the past. I really don't understand why it's such a issue for 'developers' who've made millions of $s from this website to fix.
Those affiliate sites not making a few $$?
Seems like a bit of a coincidence to me, something to write about 😁
I absolutely agree with this. Maybe the sustained attacks are a necessary, but hopefully temporary evil to ascertain the stability and safety of the Steem blockchain. I wrote a post about this today.
And while I uploaded it 4 times before the post was in fact recorded on chain I think it was worth it.
A good post you have (finally!) submitted to the blockchain.
@ned did say 'battle-tested' prior to the attacks - well that is definitely the case now!
I just hope these DDOS stops because it affects my needs.
Yes, same here!
Thanks for your support
Frustration of people as well as curiosity is increasing :/
For sure. I think it's a good time to buy, hopefully tomorrow :)