Subject: I see.
Author:
Posted on: 2023-07-12 03:44:22 UTC
Even more reasons to wish crypto-currency would go away...
And yeah, the "explanation" for the attack seems like pure BS any way you slice it. I wonder if they just think AO3 is big enough to have the money, but small enough not to be able to investigate or fight back effectively?
~Neshomeh
The issue may not be completely resolved, but it worked for me when I checked it just now. Looks like they've got CloudFlare now.
Seems like the group responsible for DDoSing them wants $30,000 in Bitcoin. I don't know why anyone wants Bitcoin anymore. I'd almost say let them have it, if it would actually work and wouldn't require turning real money into Bitcoin. >.>
~Neshomeh, strongly considering a donation to AO3 when possible.
All "tech" ransoms ask for bitcoin payments - except it isn't as untraceable as they think. Just more "easy" than, say, a Moneygram - the victim buys bitcoins and transfers them to the wallet indicated by the criminal, then the criminal makes them "jump" across a few other wallets before exchanging them into cash again on likely a different exchange center than the one they suggested the victim to use, or directly use the bitcoins to buy other illicit services or goods.
AFAIK some dictatorships even have "official" scammer teams tasked with gettign funding for their otherwise untenable state by running online extortions and scams - pretty much all the article I read about the AO3 outage do say that the motivations under the attack might just be a ruse to cover such an operation.
Dowining AO3 due to its "decadent NSFW and LBGT content" being against their religious beliefs... but, hey, it's fine if you pay them 30k. I call bullcrap on that.
Even more reasons to wish crypto-currency would go away...
And yeah, the "explanation" for the attack seems like pure BS any way you slice it. I wonder if they just think AO3 is big enough to have the money, but small enough not to be able to investigate or fight back effectively?
~Neshomeh
They claim to be Sudanese, too, and we're pretty sure they're not.