From TechCrunch:
Geopolitical Attacks On Twitter Intensified Almost Tenfold Last Night

by MG Siegler on August 7, 2009

As we noted early this morning, Twitter is still having some major issues getting its service stabilized following the DDoS attacks. Co-founder Biz Stone has posted a new update on the situation on Twitter’s blog today. Apparently, the attacks are still ongoing, and while Stone refuses to speculate on the motivation behind them, he does note that they appear to be “geopolitical” in their nature.

Says Stone:

The ongoing, massively coordinated attacks on Twitter this week appear to have been geopolitical in motivation. However, we don’t feel it’s appropriate to engage in speculative discussion about these motivations. The open exchange of information can have a positive impact globally and our job is to keep Twitter services running reliably to the best of our ability.

This is in line with various reports around the web suggesting that a group of Russian hackers are targeting Georgian users, and possibly just one user. Similar attacks also targeted Facebook, LiveJournal, Blogger and YouTube. While certainly this would fall into the realm of cyber terrorism, what’s crazy is how this is echoing elements of actual terrorism as well. We’ve gotten multiple tips from parties either claiming or denying responsibility for the attacks, much like terrorist factions claim or deny responsibility when a bomb goes off somewhere.

Sadly, given the success the responsible parties have seen in taking down these sites, it seems likely that it will only embolden others to carry out more attacks of this nature in the future. Twitter notes that it is doing all it can to prevent that and to resolve this situation, but as Stone writes, “Denial of Service attacks are a known quantity on the web and they are not going away any time soon.”  READ MORE

It looks like there may be a rough ride ahead.

As individuals and businesses grow more dependent upon this media, even canceling traditional services like land line telephones and minimizing the use of email, all must be aware that something crippling could happen without much warning.

However, the good guys have some pretty sharp soldiers and the bad guys are perfectly willing to come over to the side of light if sufficiently challenged and compensated.

Battle lines will be difficult to determine. Some argue that hackers have a valuable role in testing the vulnerability of systems.

I find them irritating and worse.

This is actually very serious business. A case in point would be the importance of social networks as the only outlet protesters in Iran recently had available.

I applaud those who are working to keep the lines of communication open. Good job so far.

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