[LINK] Wikileaks Mirror Taken Down

[Rick Welykochy]

Seasons Greetings Linkers,

Thi is certainly a chilling effect, of the worst kind. A WikiLeaks mirror has
been taken down by an upstream provider simply because of the *possibility*
of a DDoS attack. Well, that's their excuse, anyway.

<https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2010/12/weakest-links-host-buckles-when-upstream-provider>

   "Wikileaks isn't the only site struggling to stay up these days because service providers
    are pulling their support. It appears that at least one person who wants to provide mirror
    access to Wikileaks documents is having the same trouble.

    Recently we heard from a user who mirrored the Cablegate documents on his website. His
    hosting provider SiteGround suspended his account, claiming that he "severely" violated
    the SiteGround Terms of Use and Acceptable Use Policy. SiteGround explained that it had
    gotten a complaint from an upstream provider, SoftLayer, and had taken action "in order
    to prevent any further issues caused by the illegal activity."

    SiteGround told the user that he would need to update his antivirus measures and get rid
    of the folder containing the Wikileaks cables to re-enable his account. When the user
    asked why it was necessary to remove the Wikileaks folder, SiteGround sent him to SoftLayer.
    The user asked SoftLayer about the problem, but the company refused to discuss it with him
    because he isn't a SoftLayer customer. Finally, SiteGround told the user that SoftLayer wanted
    the mirror taken down because it was worried about the potential for distributed denial of
    service (DDOS) attacks. When the user pointed out that no attack had actually happened, and
    that this rationale could let the company use hypothetical future events to take down any
    site, SiteGround said that it was suspending the account because a future DDOS attack might
    violate its terms of use."

A site taken down for a potential future threat that might violate terms of use?
Sounds like a preemptive strike to me.

My oh my how the corporates are cowering in fear of the US State Dept.

cheers
rickw



-- 
Rick Welykochy || Praxis Services

In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act.
      -- George Orwell