Having trouble accessing Twitter, Reddit, PSN, and Battlefield 1 servers today? The good news is, such as it is, is that you're not suffering alone. USA Today reports that at least two massive DDoS attacks have blocked access to major sites including all of the above and many others, across the US and in parts of Europe.
The first attack hit around 7:10 am ET, followed by another at 9:30 am. Internet performance company Dyn Inc. said on its status page that it has been working to mitigate multiple attacks; most recently, it said "the advanced service monitoring issue has been resolved," but its engineers "are still investigating and mitigating the attacks on our infrastructure." At the time of writing, however, Dyn.com itself was still down.
The situation is serious enough that the White House said the Department of Homeland Security is "monitoring the situation," although there is currently no indication as to who might be responsible. (Hail Hydra.)
The attacks are "consistent with record-setting sized cyberattacks seen in the last few weeks," White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said. According to Reuters, the FBI is also investigating.
"This is not a script kiddie," Markus Jakobsson, the chief scientist at computer security firm Agari, said. "This not just an instant job, this is something that was probably worked on for weeks if not for months by really competent people."
The scale of the attack means it may even be the result of nation-state activity, although again, as far as I know, responsibility hasn't been claimed. Of course, it's far more difficult to stay abreast of the situation than it would normally be, because my most immediate source of updates for such things—Twitter—remains out of commission.
