DIGIT-ARC read-only archive · snapshot: July 23, 2026

Is your net slow presently? Blame the worlds biggest DDoS attack

42 posts · originally from https://geek.digit.in/community/threads/is-your-net-slow-presently-blame-the-worlds-biggest-ddos-attack.172061/

theserpent
theserpent Original post #1
Mar 28, 2013 at 8:34 PM
A massive DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service) attack levelled against Dutch anti-spam group Spamhaus may be causing global Internet speeds to fall, news reports have claimed. A BBC report states that the DDoS attack entailed Spamhaus’ servers being assaulted by 300 Gb/s of data through a technique called DNS reflection.According to an executive at security firm Arbor Networks, the largest DDoS attack before this one comprised of a peak data rate of 100 Gb/s. While speaking to the BBC, cybersecurity expert Alan Woodward said that this massive traffic was resulting in falling Internet speeds across the world.

The DDoS attack against Spamhaus comes in the wake of the blacklisting of Cyberbunker, a Dutch web hosting service, by the anti-spamming group. Cyberbunker, whose infamous and unofficial motto is that it will host anything that’s not child pornography or terrorism related, has been accused by Spamhaus of colluding with Eastern-European criminal gangs to wage the DDoS attack in retaliation for the blacklisting. Cyberbunker has rejected the accusations and has instead pointed a finger towards Stophaus, an online group formed by ISPs and users disgruntled by Spamhaus. While speaking to RT, Sven Olaf Kamphuis, a spokesman for Cyberbunker, also accused Spamhaus of falsely accusing ISPs of being spammers and blacklisting them without any evidence.

Kamphuis also claimed that the DDoS attack wasn’t causing Internet speeds to fall and blamed CloudFlare, the security firm that helped Spamhaus deal with the attack, for exaggerating information in order to show itself in good light. Gizmodo also gave this claim some degree of veracity by pointing out that no other company, apart from CloudFlare and Spamhaus, that relies on the Web has come out with reports of service outage. Also, sites that monitor global Internet speeds and general service health didn’t show any major anomalies generated by the DDoS attack.

However, many users in India did complain of slow speeds yesterday but that could probably be blamed on undersea cables near Egypt being cut- cables that provided Internet access to parts of Asia and Africa. Other Internet gateways providing services to Europe and India were also undergoing maintenance at the same time, which may have also been directly responsible to slow Internet speeds rather than the DDoS attack.

Spamhaus has said that law enforcement agencies from five different countries have started investigations in response to the DDoS attack.

World's biggest DDoS attack blamed for slowing down global Internet speeds - Internet | ThinkDigit News

and i though airtel is trolling me
thetechfreak
Mar 28, 2013 at 8:40 PM
Although my GPRS is working fine now but it was just refusing to work for better part of the day. Many sites just refuse to load no matter what I do. The bsnl website for example didn't load today afternoon.
Also the damaged undersea cable too plays a big role in this IMO.
kapilove77
Mar 28, 2013 at 8:49 PM
Yes people having slow internet speed for few days. I know that because i work at mtnl call centre. Atleast i can tell them the reason now. Even though net speed doesn't affect me much in home. But yeah torrent speed reduced.
RCuber
RCuber #4
Mar 28, 2013 at 8:58 PM
wiki is hit :( .. I cant load any pages other than home page :/
Sam22
Sam22 #5
Mar 28, 2013 at 9:02 PM
it's all fine in my case...the net speed is quite good...able to open all the sites including wikipedia
101gamzer
Mar 28, 2013 at 9:05 PM
This is worst case scenario DDoS Acttack + Underwater Cable cut =Slower net speeds :cry:
harshilsharma63
Mar 28, 2013 at 9:35 PM
My edge connection is working just fine.

My edge connection is working just fine.
T
The Conqueror #8
Mar 28, 2013 at 10:13 PM
Many of us who use the internet services of Bharti Airtel, Vodafone India, Tata Communications and state-run Bharat Sanhar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) have witnessed disruption or a slower speed during the past few days as a result of the recent fibre optic cable breaks off the Egyption coast, close to Alexandria.

The fibre optics which were cut include Europe India Gateway (EIG), Telecom Egypt North (TEN), South East Asia–Middle East–Western Europe 4 (SMEWE4), India-Middle East-Western Europe (IMEWE). Of these, EIG and TEN that were failed last week, are likely to be repaired completely by April 22. On the other hand, there is no clear forecast for repairing of the SMEWE4 cable that was disrupted in the last 24 hours.


According to industry sources, cable systems of Reliance Communications, including FEA, FALCON and HAWK, were not impacted with the cable cut.
W
Mar 28, 2013 at 10:22 PM
only undersea cable cuts/maintenance results in such kind of disruption in net services nation-wide in a country like India not some DDoS attack.
MetalheadGautham
Mar 28, 2013 at 11:33 PM
Beam Fibre speeds pathetic at home. Office internet has also slowed down to particular sites for no apparent reason. Now I know why....
Nerevarine
Mar 28, 2013 at 11:39 PM
I was having 350 ping on garena servers lately.. This might be the problem
Extreme Gamer
Mar 28, 2013 at 11:44 PM
I thought the current slowdown is because of some idiots cutting the SEA-ME-WE 4 connection.

SEA-ME-WE 4 March 27 2013 fault - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Since at least 2 points in this line are out of service at the moment, a significant chunk of bandwidth is being routed from elsewhere, causing the slowdown.
amjath
amjath #14
Mar 28, 2013 at 11:46 PM
My gprs as well as BSNL broadband working just fine but worst pings in my broadband
S
saifi2649 #15
Mar 29, 2013 at 12:16 AM
i cannot access facebook and lots of other sites right now :(
G
Mar 29, 2013 at 12:40 AM
i was trolling poor bsnl guys with complaints whole week.
Ayuclack
Ayuclack #17
Mar 29, 2013 at 3:07 AM
I thought what happened to my PC ..ran cleaner and other utility and even tweaked my modem...
shreymittal
Mar 29, 2013 at 9:17 AM
I am getting 20kbps downloading speed instead of 1mbps in torrent.
Just called Airtel C.C they told me there is a problem in back-end servers and will be resolved by today 7PM
rijinpk1
rijinpk1 #20
Mar 29, 2013 at 9:50 AM
I am using idea 3G and so far no problems.
NoasArcAngel
Mar 29, 2013 at 10:10 AM
no problems 115KB/s download. I may or may not be part of the reason your internet speed was hit :p :p :D

edit : read spamhouse ;) :lol:
V
Vignesh B #22
Mar 29, 2013 at 12:39 PM
only undersea cable cuts/maintenance results in such kind of disruption in net services nation-wide in a country like India not some DDoS attack.
Exactly.
i was trolling poor bsnl guys with complaints whole week.

Same here. For me, BSNL's DNS servers are completely down. Using other open resolvers like Google DNS servers are allowing me to atleast browse though at very very slow speeds. :cry:In fact yesterday whole day I was trying to make my internet, with no success. I was cussing at BSNL the whole time. :p
ssdivisiongermany1933
Mar 29, 2013 at 1:10 PM
My MTNL DSL is snail now .... but reliance 3G roaring like cheetah , for some imp usage iam using reliance 3G
V
Vignesh B #24
Mar 29, 2013 at 2:47 PM
Egypt's military arrests divers cutting undersea Internet cables
Egypt's naval forces arrested three divers cutting through an undersea Internet cable today, the country's military representative said, raising the possibility that saboteurs are behind severed lines and days-long Internet disruptions.
A coast-guard patrol stopped a fishing boat near Alexandria and arrested three men "while they were cutting a submarine cable" line belonging to Telecom Egypt, the country's main communications company, Col. Ahmed Mohammed Ali said on his official Facebook page. The page offered no details on the divers' identities, according to published reports.
It was not immediately clear if the divers were responsible for recent disruptions to Internet traffic over several lines that connect Africa with Europe, the Middle East, and Europe. Meanwhile, an executive for Telecom Egypt told TV network CBC that the disruptions were due to cable damage caused by a ship, according to the Associated Press.
A handful of Internet and telephone outages have been caused in recent years by damage to undersea cables near Alexandria, which carry more than 75 percent of traffic between the Middle East, Europe, and the United States. A trio of outages in 2008 were thought to have been caused by weather conditions or ship anchors.
kapilove77
Mar 30, 2013 at 12:19 AM
Speed came back to normal now? I can see difference in torrent now it's giving full speed now.
Vyom
Vyom #26
Mar 30, 2013 at 9:57 AM
This sucks. From a few days speed is pathetic. Clubbed by the unreliable MTNL modem, this is a nightmare!!! :'|
T
Mar 30, 2013 at 10:33 AM
but my tikona broadband speed didnt slowed down one bit :)
anirbandd
anirbandd #28
Mar 30, 2013 at 11:28 AM
gmail slowed down considerably...

Speed came back to normal now? I can see difference in torrent now it's giving full speed now.

torrents were fine.. 2mbps constant for me..
browsing slowed down a bit.
gameranand
Mar 30, 2013 at 12:41 PM
Darn it.....In day I can't even browse properly, although in late night Speeds gets OKish. :)

And now I know why I can't get the downloads in College also. I used to get 2-3MB/s and now its like 200 KBps. :|
T
Mar 30, 2013 at 12:48 PM
Darn it.....In day I can't even browse properly, although in late night Speeds gets OKish. :)

And now I know why I can't get the downloads in College also. I used to get 2-3MB/s and now its like 200 KBps. :|

which college ??
harshilsharma63
Mar 30, 2013 at 1:23 PM
Fishermans cutting undersea cables? World has come to an end.

Fishermans cutting undersea cables? World has come to an end.
Sainatarajan
Mar 30, 2013 at 9:51 PM
My Airtel Mobile internet speed Has Become slow nowadays....
pratyush997
Mar 30, 2013 at 9:56 PM
Trollers of the Q1, 2013
Egypt catches divers cutting internet cable | MinnPost
pkkumarcool
Mar 31, 2013 at 1:52 AM
sometime timeout is occuring
ashintomson
Mar 31, 2013 at 2:55 AM
huh same here timeout is occurring in my bsnl broadband :/ anyone else having problems with bsnl ?
ramakanta
ramakanta #40
Mar 31, 2013 at 7:37 AM
my internet speed ,even better

*s13.postimg.org/wo6ttmj5f/speed.jpg
Extreme Gamer
Mar 31, 2013 at 10:03 PM
Well, it's better than them blowing up an oil pipeline right?