DDOS on Twitter - happening now!
Published: Thu, 06 Aug 2009 16:04:49 GMTTwitter.com is currently down.
Status.twitter.com reports that they are currently fighting a DDOS (Distributed Denial of Service) attack which has been running by my estimation since shortly before 15:00 BST.
In a DDOS attack, the server is sent enough requests to overwhelm the server and affect genuine users. In the case of a site like twitter, which has lots of bandwidth, the attack generally comes from a botnet (computers infected with malware which can be turned to a variety of uses - from sending spam emails to DDOSing sites). There is speculation that this attack is being perpetrated by the same "Dastardly Hackers" who brought down Gawker on Sunday while ddosing consumerist.com.
Twitter's status page now reports that the site is back up, but I have found that service is still intermittent. I want my twitter back!