Did you hear? The Blind Pig was taken hostage! Well sorta of…let me explain. More than a few of you have noticed there has been no Blind Pig sitting in your email for the last few days. I wrote the posts-they just never made it to your email account or to the blog itself.
Typepad-the blogging platform I use to write the Blind Pig & the Acorn has been under a DDos attack for the last several days. Lucky for me-it only started causing problems on the Blind Pig Sunday morning. Other Typepad folks have been suffering for 5 days or longer.
In a nutshell the DDos attack means: when your computer tries to access the Blind Pig it receive a message saying nobody’s home.
Throughout the service outage, the folks at Typepad have been outstanding. They’ve kept their customers updated through Twitter and Facebook in a kindly manner-even though some of my fellow Typepad users haven’t been quite as nice.
Knowing that Typepad was working hard to stave off the attack I googled around to see if I could learn more about DDos.
Techcrunch.com published an article about Typepad and it’s DDos attack on April 21. According to the article in a DDos attack someone takes your servers (where websites are stored) hostage and then refuses to release them until a ransom has been paid.
A criminal bombarded Typepad with an unreal amount of traffic/website visitors. Unreal because it was ‘fake’ and unreal because Typepad would never receive that amount of traffic all at once. The exponential amount of traffic knocked Typepad’s servers off line. The criminal continued to send the traffic-but also contacted Typepad asking for a ransom: “Hey Typepad if you’ll give me some money I’ll stop the traffic so that you can have your servers back.”
Typepad said “NO WAY!” Well I don’t know if that’s what they said for sure. But the article on Techcrunch.com stated that Typepad refused to pay the ransom and were instead working hard to fix the DDos attack themselves AND working closely with the authorities.
The Techcrunch.com article said other high profile sites have been targeted in recent weeks-Meetup, Basecamp, Vimeo, and Bit.ly. I believe Typepad will be safer from attacks in the future-as they have seen firsthand what it’s like to be the target of one-however, every website on the entire internet is vulnerable to a DDos attack.
None of the actual data Typepad stores was compromised in any way shape or form. The attack only blocked users from accessing Typepad sites.
Hoping things will be back to normal here on the Blind Pig! But now that you’ve heard the attack news-you’ll know the issue continues if I’m not in your inbox in the coming days.
Tipper
Hi Tipper,I’m so glad your back,I was sure I had done something wrong since Iknow so little about this machine,ha ha!God Bless. Jean
Tipper,
I am so glad you are back. I am glad I am back as well.
At 2:00AM the better half and I downed a cup of coffee, thermosed up what was left, shut down the lights, put out the cat, put tons of paper in the bathroom for the Shih-Tzu and off we went to SC.
I hope no one saw us coming back…In our little Honda Civic we had a full swing in the trunk, my rollator, in the back seat we had two chair swings standard size…Don’t ask how we got them in there. Tomato plants, Daffodill bulbs, Green tomatos, Bell Peppers, Ramps (from Cosby) shew eeeeee, with roots, we are going to plant them again on our North side…Junk jewelry for my crafts, a few antique bowls, two 1940’s Cedar Jewelry boxes, which I use to store my art supplies, I love them when I can find them cheap.Three books on the Civil War, a cookbook I couldn’t live without just too cheap, a hardcover book with dustcover on gardening with Southern Native plants, a huge book by the American Horticultural Society (mint shape). My very favorite find, a 1904 edition of “Out to Old Aunt Mary’s”, by James Whitcomb Riley, near mint, with pencil drawings on each opposing page. Since I never forget the outhouse, I found one of Uncle Johns’s paperbacks “Curiously Compelling Bathroom Readers” only cost me a $1.50…..All we needed was Elly Mae Clampett and Granny Clampett riding on the top of the car….LOL It was a sight to behold!
I just love the Pickens Flea Market on a beautiful day of bargains…
Thanks Tipper, I am so tired and know I can get some sleep and wake up in the morning to my coffee and the BlindPig!
Well I for one am glad to see you back on the site and was beginning to wonder if something was seriously wrong. Do the hackers not understand that they may be messing with some Appalachian rednecks that need their daily fix of the blind pig. Anyways welcome back and have a great day.
Well thank the good Lord there wasn’t anything personally wrong. Your blog has a perfectly good excuse. I, on the other hand…
Welcome back! I wondered if you were on vacation during spring break.
I kinda figured something like this when I couldn’t pull it up. Oh the joys and downfalls of modern day technology. So glad you’re back and thanks for your understanding and patience with me and my ongoing problems. I miss your posts so much when I can’t get on. Hope all is well with you and your family.
Glad to see you back and sound. I knew something was up when Google couldn’t find you!!
Glad you all are ok–I was concerned you might have had a family emergency.
Tipper,
I kinda feel like Ed, the way he
described the withdrawal feelings.
Although I may never meet most of the
commentors on here, there is a feeling
of Friends. You are responsible for
this, Thank You. Glad you’re back!
…Ken
Good morning, everyone, It’s good to have you back. I usually read Blind Pig at the end of my day, since my mornings are pretty hectic. I only comment occasionally, but read everyone of your comments. Like all of you, Blind Pig is an important part of my day. One good thing is this mess made me sign up for your FaceBook page, so I knew what was going on. Best wishes for a good day to all of you.
Why would someone that smart not have a job? I do not understand the world we live in anymore. I am very glad you are back. Deborah Catoe
Whew! As they say in the the movie O Brother Where Art Thou, I thought you had done R-U-N-N-O-F-T or something! Glad you’re back because I missed my daily BP fix! Too bad there are people out there who spend time trying to do bad things instead of doing good. If they would spend that much time on helping others our world would be a better place.
So sorry to hear this! It’s one thing about blogging I find frustration…we are at the mercy of technology. I hope it is resolved
I do have to say, I love the title of this post. Got my attention right away, LOL!
I’m glad you are back. I was a bit fearful that you, or someone close, was ill or hurt. I hope those responsible for the hijacking are found and punished to the full extent of the law. If folks like these would only use their skills, energy and time to do good, rather than disrupt, our society would be so much better.
Welcome Back! Who knew you would also be providing techie education! Learning is a constant thing –
A Pox on those who messed with typepad. . . . nah – don’t want to lower myself to their level. . . . live, learn, and move on. . . . the important thing is that the Blind Pig neighborhood is connected again.
So glad that you’re back! We thought maybe the problem was on our end. Hope you and the BP Gang had a great Easter!
Well, sure I noticed my missing daily email from The Blind Pig!They say you never miss a drink of water till the well runs dry. The criminals picked the worst time to hack the server. Just when I needed to reference my hand-written oatmeal cake recipe I was making for Easter dinner. I also had a question I needed to ask Granny about my butter making disaster. If I’m lucky enough to get more fresh milk, I will ask my question before I ruin another gallon.
The cake turned out absolutely delicious!
If only the criminal mind could be used for good, what a wonderful world this would be.
While The Blind Pig is trying to spread Appalachian good will there are evil people out there who do nothing but try to destroy good. It is rather scary. Great to have you back!
Even though I don’t comment everyday, I check out your posts first thing everyday. So glad to be able to click on your link and see it come up and hear the music start playing! Sure did miss you and the Blind Pig Gang and am glad that you are back!
I was so happy to see your email in my inbox. I have missed reading the
Blind Pig! I did think something technical was going on. Hope everything stays ok, but I will keep checking if it goes off again. Have a blessed day.
How frustrating. I hope things are back to normal for you too.
Sam
Welcome Back!
I usually don’t wait for the email. I go directly to your website. I knew there was something going on Thursday afternoon when Google couldn’t find you.
You know I am addicted to the Blindpig. I can go one day without my fix, but more than that and I go into withdrawal. It’s kinda like when I smoked and would run out of cigarettes and didn’t have a way to get to the store. Or when I flipped the switch on the coffee pot and nothing happened. It just messes up your whole day. Or in this case a whole weekend.
I (as all the other faithful accessors) missed Blind Pig terribly in the “down” time. I get upset that some attackers have nothing better to do than to try to put monkey-wrenches (and worse) to a good thing and cause outages and severe problems. Thanks to you and the good workers at TypePad who persisted until the problem was solved–at least for the time being. Thanks to all for the restoration–and you, especially, Tipper, for your hard work and faithfulness to keep the excellent posts coming. I consider “Blind Pig” a part of my family–both you and yours and the responders! Blind Pig is “part of my day,” and when it’s not there, a big portion of my wonderful day is missing! Welcome back!
Good for typepad for not giving in to the demands of these people.
G
I am thankful that that is what it was and not a family emergency. I’m not sure what these hackers and such want to prove by doing these types of inconviences and tactics, but I wish they would find something constructive to do with their time.
Glad you are okay!
i was wondering what had happened. my computer technology is very limited and i was checking and unchecking everything in my settings, lol. so glad to see you back.
Tipper, You know you’ve made it when people try to disrupt your service.
Keep up the good work. I look forward to receiving and reading The Blind Pig & the Acorn each day.
Your back!! I’m so glad your back, I’ve missed you terribly.
There have been attacks on the internet since it began. It’s why we all have to have virus programs. It’s a terrible shame.
I’m with Tmc, I hope the responsible parties get a cell to live in….without a computer to play with!
For some of these cyber-criminals that are out there hacking into everything, I believe we should re-institute public hangings…
Glad you’re back! I thought it was me, lol!!
Wow, In the age of technology there are thugs everywhere, no ones completely safe from attack anymore,, hope they catch the ones responsible, and give them a nice 6×8 cell..