WikiLeaks asks 'supporters to stop taking down the US internet'

Have you had issues accessing some of your favorite sites today? If so, you’re not alone. The internet was hit today with a series of DDoS attacks:

This morning, a massive distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack was launched against Dyn, apparently, overloading its servers that were providing DNS services for some popular websites, thereby taking down access to many sites (at least intermittently). While I am oversimplifying for sake of understandability, essentially a DDoS attack on DNS services causes users trying to access a site — Twitter.com, for example — to be unable to reach the DNS provider that processes requests to translate that site’s name into a technically-addressable IP address, rendering the site unreachable. Also, it is worth noting that simply using an IP address for the site when entering a URL is not a good solution; for various technical reasons some sites are not accessible in such a fashion, and, obviously, one cannot enter the IP address into many apps.

According to Gizmodo, sites that went offline as a result include ActBlue, Basecamp, Big Cartel, Box, Business Insider, CNN, Cleveland.com, Esty, Github, Grubhub, The Guardian, HBO Now, iHeartRadio, Imgur, Intercom, Okta, PayPal, People, Pinterest, Playstation Network, Recode, Reddit, Spotify, Squarespace, Starbucks Cards, Storify, The Verge, Twillo, Twitter, Urbandictionary, Weebly, Wired, Wix Customer Sites, Yammer, Yelp, Zendesk.com, and Zoho, and that list represents only a small fraction of the sites truly impacted by the attack.

But in case anyone was wondering, WikiLeaks would like to state, for the record, that they have nothing to do with the attack:

Mr. Assange is still alive and WikiLeaks is still publishing. We ask supporters to stop taking down the US internet. You proved your point. pic.twitter.com/XVch196xyL

— WikiLeaks (@wikileaks) October 21, 2016

Hmmm.

https://twitter.com/UK_Kipper/status/789574600002854912

So, is WikiLeaks suggesting its supporters are behind this?

https://twitter.com/IsaacKappy/status/789577132984766464

https://twitter.com/7im/status/789577501475352576

Are you trolling, threatening or serious that you think supporters are taking US net down?

— Ludwig W (@LudWitt) October 21, 2016

Look at that map. Look at those power corridors! Very clever & loyal supporters, if that is the case.

— l.an.a. (@phantasmagemina) October 21, 2016

Of course, there’s this theory:

https://twitter.com/Scr1nRusher/status/789575444911820800

For what it’s worth, here’s what the U.S. government and Dyn have to say:

BREAKING: U.S. official says no indication cyber attacks are state-sponsored, calling it a 'classic case of internet vandalism' – CNBC

— BNO News (@BNONews) October 21, 2016

MORE: Dyn says cyber attacks appear to be using devices that are infected with recently-released malware; motive unknown – CNBC

— BNO News (@BNONews) October 21, 2016