General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Anyone still think DU was crashed on election night by some random 400 lb hacker? [View all]MineralMan
(146,192 posts)Think back to when the site came back up. The admins are not going to discuss the exact nature of the hack and what access the hackers gained. They're not going to discuss the methodology of the exploit, either. Instead, they fixed the things that allowed that exploit to take place, made changes to prevent a future attack of the same nature, and then brought the site back online. We all had to log in anew.
I'm not going to speculate or discuss any of it any further. If the admins want to reveal any further information, I'm sure they will, but that's probably not going to happen. I suspect that DU will be much harder to attack in the future, though, based on the aftermath and precautions taken after it was launched again.
I do not know who hacked DU. I'm pretty sure I saw what I saw afterwards, but that provided no clues as to the actual hacker's identities. By association, though, they appear to be people who have hated DU for a very long time, and who found a way to penetrate it and disrupt it. There are many such people, I have no doubt. I can't think of any reason for any Russians to bother with DU, though, especially considering when the hack occurred.
I have my own suspicions, but not enough information to go any further. Clues and associations involved all seem to lead in one direction, but the trail grows cold before more can be determined. DU is back, is probably far more secure, and we're all back discussing stuff as usual. It doesn't appear that any personal information was compromised, since there's been no evidence of anyone using such information in any way.
Speculation about this from any perspective outside of the administration of DU is probably worthless, since none of us know exactly what happened and how. Some people have guesses about those responsible, I'm sure. The admins probably have guesses about that as well. Theirs are probably better informed than mine and those of others. However, the trail is almost certainly a dead end before reaching the actual culprits.
So, back to DU and its normal, or abnormal activity. The rest doesn't really matter all that much. It's just a political discussion forum. It has friends and enemies. There are probably people looking for new ways to attack DU. In the meantime, we can just carry on as always.