forums.newart.com

SFBallpumper wrote: ↑Mon Sep 30, 2019 1:00 pm Here's what I know: When you log on these days, you get a message saying that Cloudflare is checking your browser. The message also mentions “DDoS.”

1. DDoS: A DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service) attack happens when a group of computers or devices are hacked and are then programmed to target a single system. In this case, that‘s Newart. The malicious computers create literally billions of fake network requests or log-ins every few seconds. The targeted site can’t handle the traffic and effectively is shut down. Real visitors may get messages that say that the site has exceeded the number of visitors that it can handle at one time, or real visitors may not be able to reach the site at all. Besides computers, hackers have even used other devices connected to the Internet like cameras, smart TVs, DVR players, radios, printers, baby monitors, etc. to create this fake traffic.*

Hackers may demand ransom money before they’ll stop harassing a targeted site. Or they may effectively shut down sites that they don’t like. Because the fake traffic comes from a large group of coordinated computers or devices, a site administrator can’t just block a single Internet address. And as far as I know, there’s no way to block things like baby monitors.

2. Cloudflare: Cloudflare is a reputable company. I’ve used their services before on a website I built. When you protect a website against DDoS attacks, it checks that your browser isn’t compromised.

My only concern is that the Admin here hasn’t explained what’s going on, but he’s probably overwhelmed trying to keep the site up and running.


SFB



**“Hackers Used New Weapons to Disrupt Major Websites Across U.S.” –The New York Times
https://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/22/business/internet-problems-attack.html

“Did Baby Monitors Really Cause The Internet To Go Down?”—The Huffington Post
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/did-baby-monitors-really-cause-the-internet-to-go-down_b_580d6f5ee4b0b1bd89fdb4e1

"DDoS attack that disrupted internet was largest of its kind in history, experts say"--The Guardian
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/oct/26/ddos-attack-dyn-mirai-botnet

"The DDoS Attack Against Dyn One Year Later"--Forbes magazine
https://www.forbes.com/sites/davelewis/2017/10/23/the-ddos-attack-against-dyn-one-year-later/#64ddaf591ae9

SFBallpumper wrote: ↑Tue Oct 01, 2019 5:23 pm If you log on and get the message that there are too many users, refresh the page and it usually goes away. The message says:

"User forums_phpbb3 already has more than 'max_user_connections' active connections"

Those bogus connections to the site are causing it to overload (see my previous message in this thread). Whoever it is who's attacking the site has caused a major pain in butt!