WordPress Hit With Massive Hack Attack

Blog host WordPress has been hit with the largest attack they've ever seen.

According to a statement by founder Matt Mullenweg to CNET, WordPress.com is being targeted by a DDoS--Distributed Denial of Service--attack which has caused "sporadic slowness."

WordPress, in addition to providing free blog services for laypeople, also has VIP services that host blogs like TechCrunch, CNN, and others. WordPress hosts almost 18 million sites. Over 286 million people view blogs on WordPress each month.

The attack, according to an email TechCrunch received, sent to VIP members, is "multiple Gigabits per second and tens of millions of packets per second. Mullenweg says it is "the largest and most sustained attack" they've seen in their history.

WordPress suspects the attack may have been "politically motivated" against one of their non-English language blogs, though they are not sure. Though the attack is under control at the moment, the site is alert to the possibility of a later attack.

Comments

[RRtreerat]

09:27 AM on 03/05/2011

This not the only site that is currently under a ddos attack, just the most visible.
Whom ever has gotten control of a fairly large 'bot-net' is running a sophisticated attack of varying patterns so that as soon as you got one figured out and stopped they change the pattern and continue.

[Soulfest]

05:54 PM on 03/04/2011

When I was searching for a free blogging site for my wee blog, I chose Wordpress because I retained copyright to all of my content even tho I was using their wordpress.com. They are great, fair and ethical, and I wish them all the success, growth, and prosperity for their company. I love them.

[drumz]

03:17 PM on 03/04/2011

I'll host your wordpress blog for $100/year.

[mjslater]

02:19 PM on 03/04/2011

For those of you interested, this has nothing to do with the security of the Wordpress blogging software. ddos simply attack the servers the software is running on and try to slow them down so much that most people will be unable to reach the site. so until an exploit is published your blogs are relatively safe

[Thomas oppong]

09:14 AM on 03/04/2011

Wordpress has been the best blogging platform. Its high time they concentrated on how to increase security for the platform. We(bloggers) cannot be compromised.

[drumz]

03:18 PM on 03/04/2011

You don't have to use them as a host.

[arcanepsyche]

06:57 PM on 03/05/2011

A DDOS attack does not mean they are unsecured. It just means someone is attacking the host that the site is on.

[FACTISFACT]

03:38 AM on 03/04/2011

The greatness is determined by counting how many opposition or enemies it has. That should not worry WordPress.com so long it follows the freedom of press rules/regulation strictly and do not obstruct or act partially on behalf of any clan or people as CNN and NEWS WEEK does and censors news. I wish WordPress.com the very best future.

[studmoose]

07:39 AM on 03/04/2011

WordPress rules!

[FACTISFACT]

03:18 AM on 03/05/2011

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[kneilson97]

10:32 PM on 03/03/2011

That much bandwidth would have to be corporate or state sponsored.

"multiple Gigabits per second "

That is not cheap to come by.

[mongpong]

04:03 AM on 03/04/2011

Just because something is huge does not mean it's state sponsored. They just pay a fortune for lots of server space - end of. No need to add political undertones or conspiracies to the way a company works just because you do not understand how they work.

[RRtreerat]

09:35 AM on 03/05/2011

This is as a result of a 'conspiracy' by unknown individuals who have gotten their hands on a bot-net by either hacking or by purchase($). Their reason(s) for doing this are also unknown at this time, for all we know they could be doing it just for S&G's

[drumz]

03:18 PM on 03/04/2011

clueless

[Theophrastus]

08:16 PM on 03/03/2011

It might be nice to know a little more about where they think the attacks are coming from.
Also, what kind of "politically motivated" attacks are they?

[Theophrastus]

08:14 PM on 03/03/2011

Yay, first post!

[Lahonda]

10:40 PM on 03/06/2011

...and you wasted it.