Twitter went down worldwide, came back up and then went down again, with Down Detector racking up over 6,000 reports in one hour, but Twitter wasn't alone in suffering outages, as multiple communications networks also saw a spike in reports overnight, with the live outage maps from different companies showing the same geographical locations being hit.
Also noteworthy is the spikes in outage complaints for the telecommunications companies occurred around the same time.
RUSSIA, RUSSIA, RUSSIA!!!
Interestingly enough, it appears the mainstream media, on behalf of U.S. and UK officials, converged on warning their audiences that a global cyber attack was imminent and of course it was being blamed on Russia. The warning of course had nothing to do with actual outages, but highlighted an "unprecedented" joint alert from the U.S. and UK, that Russia was "stepping up" efforts to hack networks through routers, in retaliation for the Syria conflict.
The warning on Monday came from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and Federal Bureau of Investigation and Britain’s National Cyber Security Center. It included advice to companies about how to protect themselves and warned specifically of attacks on routers, the devices that channel data around a network.
“Russian state-sponsored actors are using compromised routers to conduct spoofing ‘man-in-the-middle’ attacks to support espionage, extract intellectual property, maintain persistent access to victim networks and potentially lay a foundation for future offensive operations,” according to a joint statement. “Multiple sources including private and public-sector cybersecurity research organizations and allies have reported this activity to the U.S. and U.K. governments.”
Just take a look at how all the media networks converged on that narrative within the last 24 hours.
That was just a portion of page one, it continues on subsequent pages, making it very clear that the media really, really wants people to know that Russia is conducting "cyber attacks." While the warnings focused on the hacking of networks and data breaches, USA Today highlights the "targets included government and private organizations, including internet service providers.
According to the BCI Horizon Scan Report (2018), the top three concerns by businesses are 1) Cyber attack; 2) Data breach, and; 3) Unplanned IT and telecom outage.
Over the last 24 hours we have hit the trifecta of reports tapping into the top fears with the overwhelming push by the media over "global cyber attacks," to include "date breaches," and the overnight spike in telecom outage reports.
If I was the cynical type, I might think we were all being herded toward one specific "narrative," where ultimately, the masses will start caring about Russia again.
For two years the media has been screaming about Russia. Russian collusion! Russia/Syria! Russia election interference! Russian bots! The problem for the liberal media is, as was admitted on CNN in January 2018, while they continue to be apoplectic about Russia on a daily basis, Americans they speak to, don't care about Russia.
Listen for yourself.
If the reaction over Twitter going down for 10 whole minutes is anything to go by, just imagine the freakfest that would occur should the entire internet go down for even a day, and Russia was blamed. Americans would jump on the "attack Russia" bandwagon in a second flat, with their pitchforks and torches waving madly.
LIVE ATTACK MAP SHOWS ATTACKS FROM WITHIN
When I see an massive outage like the reports of Twitter this morning, my first stop is Down Detector to look for a few specific things. 1) How many reports come in regarding the individual entity, in this case it was Twitter. 2) What other companies suffered spikes in outage reports recently. 3) The geographical locations and whether there is a pattern in those outage maps. All of which shown above from what I found this morning.
Then I head to the Norse Live Attack Map, which tracks multiple types of cyber attacks in real time. The top of the Norse Live Attack screen shows the map and where attacks are coming from and who they are attacking. The bottom of the screen shows Attack Origins, Attack Types. The under the Live Attack section it details the attacker, attacker IP, attacker GEO (location), target GEO, and attack type.
Norse collects and analyzes live threat intelligence from darknets in hundreds of locations in over 40 countries. The attacks shown are based on a small subset of live flows against the Norse honeypot infrastructure, representing actual worldwide cyber attacks by bad actors.
That is where things get interesting.
The screen shots above are just examples of what is seen when one watches the Live Attack Map, a moment in time captured, and I highly recommend watching the site for a few minutes to see how many "attacks" consistently originate from the U.S., with the target location also being another place within America. The overall number of attacks builds the longer one watches, starting from scratch every time it is reloaded, so spending a little time watching offers some insight to how many attacks occur within any given timeframe.
As a side note question, we have to wonder what Microsoft has against De Kalb Junction, NY?
BOTTOM LINE
Last but not least, as the media is howling about Russia and cyber attacks, with the U.S. and the UK joining together to warn the world, the last screen shot from Norse shows that Russia is most definitely not the biggest attacker, but the US is the most attacked..... from within.
Bottom line: If your favorite site becomes inaccessible, if your telecommunications company goes down, or even the whole Internet does, for a short time, remember when it comes back up and you see Russia instantly blamed, to at least question that official narrative before lighting those torches and picking up that pitchfork.
NOTE TO READERS: With digital media revenue spiraling downward, especially hitting those in Independent Media, where attacks from every direction continue to come unabated, it has become apparent that traditional advertising simply isn't going to fully cover the costs and expenses for many smaller independent websites.
Any extra readers may be able to spare for donations is greatly appreciated.
