GitHub Still Experiencing 'Evolving' DDoS Attack

GitHub, the go-to online repository for projects created in code, is suffering an online DDoS attack. Though the team reports service interruptions are quieting, there's reason to believe the attack is ongoing. GitHub has been able to "mitigate" the effects of the attack, but also say it's "evolving", and whoever may be responsible is morphing their strategy and methodology to continue the disruption. Though not exactly confirmed — and GitHub hasn't said as much — the attack is believed to have originated in China.

Officially, All GitHub says is that they "believe the intent of this attack is to convince us to remove a specific class of content." According to a report by The Wall Street Journal, Chinese hackers began the DDoS attack due to GitHub hosting anticensorship tools.

The traffic surge was directed specifically at two GitHub pages linking to copies of websites banned in China, according to experts. One was a Chinese-language page of The New York Times, while the other was run by greatfire.org, which helps Chinese netizens bypass the country's 'great firewall'.

A security expert, speaking to ZD Net, thinks whoever is responsible for the DDoS was hijacking unsuspecting web users and sending traffic to GitHub on their behalf. According to the expert, a "device at the border of China's inner network and the Internet" replaced Javascript files from Baidu with nefarious script and loaded the pages in question every two seconds. In response, Baidu released a statement on the hack, effectively distancing themselves from responsibility.

The attack started on Thursday, and GitHub currently says their systems are reporting at 100%, but they remain on "high alert" as traffic related to the attack has not subsided.

Source: GitHub