[HN Gopher] Anonymous takes down websites of Defense Ministry, R...
       ___________________________________________________________________
        
       Anonymous takes down websites of Defense Ministry, RT and Kremlin
        
       Author : andrewstetsenko
       Score  : 207 points
       Date   : 2022-02-26 16:02 UTC (6 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (thebarentsobserver.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (thebarentsobserver.com)
        
       | yyyk wrote:
       | See xkcd 932 on this type of reporting:
       | 
       | https://xkcd.com/932/
        
         | dTal wrote:
         | I dunno, it's a bit different when the "poster" is a weapon
         | unto itself, in the theatre of information warfare. It's more
         | like "hackers incapacitate CIA mind control device".
        
         | jancsika wrote:
         | To be fair the second panel be more like: "Someone found an
         | open window in the CIA's poster-printing factory and used it to
         | gum up the cogs in one of the conveyor belts."
        
       | hughrr wrote:
       | This is excellent. If you look elsewhere on the Internet you will
       | find that most of the Russian tank crews and troops were told
       | that they were doing an exercise and kept completely isolated "on
       | mission" for a couple of months. Then they get orders to proceed
       | into Ukraine, probably spun without any collateral information or
       | lies. At this point under DDoS their usual news sources are GONE.
       | That means no propaganda available from the Russian government.
       | The only sources available to them, if they get access to them,
       | are saying that they're the bad guys and that is soul crushingly
       | demotivating when you don't know why you are where you are.
        
         | chrischen wrote:
         | The secrecy could be explained that they didn't want the
         | invasion plans leaked by low level operations. Apple does the
         | same thing with new products, with different teams working in
         | isolation on a need to know basis. Clearly the army now knows
         | exactly what they are doing and where they are, and they're
         | still doing it.
        
         | tablespoon wrote:
         | > If you look elsewhere on the Internet you will find that most
         | of the Russian tank crews and troops were told that they were
         | doing an exercise and kept completely isolated "on mission" for
         | a couple of months....At this point under DDoS their usual news
         | sources are GONE.
         | 
         | Really? I though RT was part of Russia's foreign propaganda
         | effort, so I wouldn't expect it to have much effect on domestic
         | news consumption. IIRC, actually Russians get their news from
         | domestic outlets like https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russia-1
         | and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Channel_One_Russia.
         | 
         | This is good news, but mainly because it interferes with
         | Russia's foreign propaganda operations around this attack.
        
           | kergonath wrote:
           | I don't think the OP the as saying that the Russian soldiers
           | were lost because RT was taken down. Rather that they were
           | lost, on top of everything else that is happening currently.
           | 
           | It is clear that RT is propaganda for foreign consumption,
           | not domestic.
        
         | NikolaNovak wrote:
         | I am assuming the only information a solider will receive is
         | from their commanding officer and their comrades. If they
         | haven't seen alternate explanations by now, I have no
         | particular reason to believe they suddenly will.
        
         | ed_balls wrote:
         | > tank crews and troops were told that they were doing an
         | exercise and kept completely isolated
         | 
         | Most likely they are lying to look more sympathetic - there is
         | a video of a Ukrainian soldier asking questions to a captured
         | tank crew member. He said "We were told we are doing
         | exercises". Ukrainian solder responded "I've hearing the same
         | shit since 2014"
        
         | poisonarena wrote:
         | No, Russians use telegram groups for this kind of thing, and if
         | they are not savvy they will use VK
        
         | yarpen_z wrote:
         | Soldiers do not go into action with their phones. That's OPSEC
         | 101.
         | 
         | That's why we see so many smartphone recordings made by
         | civilians, but not by the military.
        
           | ceejayoz wrote:
           | Russian soldiers staging for the attacks were posting to
           | TikTok, and on the night of the invasion, traffic jams
           | started showing up at 3am near the border.
           | 
           | https://www.vice.com/en/article/xgd7dd/google-maps-live-
           | traf...
           | 
           | Seems clear the policy and the reality are not identical
           | here.
        
             | lolinder wrote:
             | The expert quoted says that it almost certainly wasn't due
             | to soldiers leaving their phones on. He suspects it was
             | ordinary people who were slowed by the movement.
             | 
             | That said, if they were posting on TikTok that's another
             | story.
        
             | blacksmith_tb wrote:
             | The linked article says "many commenters ... assume the
             | Russian soldiers left their phones on ... but Lewis said
             | that almost certainly was not the case, and the traffic
             | data Google was showing was ordinary people who couldn't
             | get on the road because of Russian military movement."
             | Which doesn't rule it out, but clearly doesn't require it
             | to be true.
        
               | ceejayoz wrote:
               | At 3am?
               | 
               | "The traffic jam slowly extended to the border, where it
               | then disappeared."
        
               | blacksmith_tb wrote:
               | That still seems possible, if civilians have been fleeing
               | in their cars? It sounded like drives that would have
               | taken a day under normal conditions were taking several
               | days in the current chaos. Which of course still doesn't
               | mean Russian soldiers might have their phones on.
        
               | ceejayoz wrote:
               | Why would a traffic's jam worth of people be fleeing from
               | Russia _into_ Ukraine alongside the invading forces?
        
             | sorenjan wrote:
             | Russian soldiers flirted with Ukrainian women on Tinder
             | right before the invasion. Either they have no shame
             | whatsoever, or they actually thought they would be welcomed
             | as saviours, as so many soldiers been told before.
             | 
             | https://www.the-sun.com/news/4757640/russian-soldiers-
             | tinder...
        
               | pcthrowaway wrote:
               | If this wasn't a dead giveaway, the Sun is a tabloid so
               | unlikely to be true unless you have a more credible
               | source:                   "RUSSIAN soldiers began
               | bombarding Ukraine yesterday -- with Tinder messages
               | looking for love."
        
               | uncletaco wrote:
               | Aren't all British papers tabloids?
        
               | jackweirdy wrote:
               | They are either tabloids or broadsheets, the terms coming
               | from the historical size of the physical newspaper.
               | 
               | Broadsheets are physically bigger, more text, typically
               | more serious, aiming at a more sophisticated reader
               | 
               | Tabloids physically smaller, more salacious, aiming at
               | the mass market
               | 
               | (Many broadsheets became smaller to save printing costs
               | over time, but the categories still apply)
        
               | Closi wrote:
               | It's worth saying that the word "tabloid" is typically
               | used to refer to the style of journalism (ie the focus on
               | entertainment) rather than in its historical context of
               | the type/size of paper.
        
               | matthewheath wrote:
               | No, some are still broadsheets, such as the Financial
               | Times, the Daily Telegraph, and the Sunday Times.
        
               | bobthechef wrote:
        
           | [deleted]
        
           | hughrr wrote:
           | That assumes Russia has a functional army which apparently it
           | doesn't based on the stuff they have been posting for the
           | last month everywhere.
        
           | Lochleg wrote:
           | Russian troops could simply be operating under the premise
           | that none of their actions would be necessary if the West
           | hadn't meddled and created the Ukrainian crisis in the first
           | place. It's that simple.
        
             | tartoran wrote:
             | Ukraians are sick of being taken advantage of by Kremlin so
             | naturally they opened towards the west. It's their choice
             | as a sovereign nation. If they consider they get a better
             | deal with the west then what do you expect the west to do,
             | reject them for fear of Putin?
        
             | bobthechef wrote:
        
           | mywacaday wrote:
           | Maybe the modern version of a leaflet drop is to drop
           | smartphones with a data plant to Russian troops and let them
           | find out for themselves
        
           | godelski wrote:
           | Wasn't one of the ways we knew Russians crossed into Crimea
           | by Russian soldiers posting on TikTok? Little Green Men.
           | 
           | So while yes, it is the smart thing to do it definitely isn't
           | what happens in reality.
        
           | rascul wrote:
           | > Soldiers do not go into action with their phones
           | 
           | Yes they do, all the time. I don't think anyone left the wire
           | without their phone while I was in Afghanistan.
        
             | HWR_14 wrote:
             | Why? To take pictures? Were they in airplane mode?
             | 
             | And it's one thing to not expect the Taliban to DF your
             | phones. The Ukrainian military, especially with prior
             | control of the cell infrastructure, is another story.
        
               | structural wrote:
               | If you need to coordinate with someone who isn't sitting
               | by a radio, you need to call them (including the local
               | govt, your own civilian personnel, etc.). You might not
               | be issued a radio at all, so a phone is what you have.
               | 
               | Commercial telecommunications are an important part of
               | any military worldwide, when they are available - so you
               | use them until someone actually starts DFing you
               | accurately, and then even after that, it's a risk to be
               | managed and certainly not black & white.
        
               | HWR_14 wrote:
               | In this case the Ukrainian military should be able to use
               | the cell towers to DF every phone. I don't get why that
               | would be a risk rather than a certainty.
        
               | kingcharles wrote:
               | Hey man, these Angry Birds aren't going to catapult
               | themselves!
        
           | dhosek wrote:
           | Weren't, e.g., the Abu Ghraib photos and video from
           | cellphones? I honestly don't have any first-hand knowledge,
           | but I would be surprised if the facts on the ground vs
           | official policy regarding soldiers' phones wouldn't be
           | different. That said, I'd also be surprised if cellular
           | internet was functional in the middle of a war.
        
           | psyc wrote:
           | "Private!! _DID_ I not tell you to put your phone in airplane
           | mode? "
           | 
           | "Sir yes sir!"
        
             | foobarbecue wrote:
             | YES I DID NOT?
        
               | kingcharles wrote:
               | Yes sir!
        
         | vmception wrote:
         | Now lets put you in their shoes. All your usual news sources
         | are gone and you get the perspective from foreign news that the
         | entity you represent is the aggressor, would that be convincing
         | to you?
        
           | hughrr wrote:
           | Well the first thing I do is probably google something then
           | so ...
        
             | vmception wrote:
             | Google is going to show you something that confirms your
             | existing beliefs like a mirror, or you are going to see ad-
             | ridden geocities-looking websites saying things that dont
             | match your existing beliefs, from bloggers or news sources
             | in governments you weren't indoctrinated to respect
             | 
             | How effective do you think this would really be for most?
        
       | andrewstetsenko wrote:
       | That's a new way to fight against Russian tanks and troops
        
         | gruez wrote:
         | Taking down internet websites isn't anywhere close to "fight
         | against Russian tanks and troops"
        
           | cookie_monsta wrote:
           | I suspect you may have missed the sarcasm here.
        
       | rusras64 wrote:
       | My city is bombed for 3 days in a row. Many of my friends took
       | arms to defend the country. I'm grateful to any help from
       | Anonymous!
        
         | jacquesm wrote:
         | Strength to you there!
        
         | ch4s3 wrote:
         | Stay safe, and good luck to your friends.
        
         | weaksauce wrote:
         | the world is on your side if not at your side just yet...
         | hopefully putin gets deposed and someone more like your leader
         | gets installed
        
           | kingcharles wrote:
           | If Ukraine wins this they should pull a switcheroo and invade
           | Russia, oust Putin and install Zelensky in the Kremlin. For
           | the lulz.
        
           | JadeNB wrote:
           | > hopefully putin gets deposed and someone more like your
           | leader gets installed
           | 
           | Given the choice, I'd definitely rather have Zelensky than
           | Putin, but preferably not either. The world doesn't need more
           | celebrity politicians. (I recognise that the US is scarcely a
           | model here; I can only plead that I didn't want any of _our_
           | celebrity politicians, either.)
           | 
           | EDIT: To be quite clear, this is _not_ meant in any way as
           | anti-Zelenksy. As the child comments say, correctly, he seems
           | to be the leader Ukraine needs right now.
        
             | avh02 wrote:
             | I'd generally agree with you, but this celebrity president
             | seems to have some sense and relative competence
        
             | kergonath wrote:
             | The Ukrainians choosing whomever they want is the best
             | outcome. There is still the possibility that they could
             | choose someone terrible, but that is their prerogative.
             | 
             | The perfect president does not exist. I'd settle for one
             | with whom you can have a discussion and who does not see
             | the world through the prism of an imaginary past.
        
               | JadeNB wrote:
               | > The Ukrainians choosing whomever they want is the best
               | outcome. There is still the possibility that they could
               | choose someone terrible, but that is their prerogative.
               | 
               | Oh, agreed! I certainly wouldn't say that Ukrainians
               | shouldn't be able to select their own leader--they
               | should, and, despite superficial impressions, have done
               | so well. It's just that I hope the world doesn't learn
               | from this that electing comedians is the way to go.
        
               | kergonath wrote:
               | > It's just that I hope the world doesn't learn from this
               | that electing comedians is the way to go.
               | 
               | Yeah. Though this one does not seem to behave so badly in
               | the end. No comparison with Trump or Reagan.
               | 
               | To be fair, whilst not a populist, I am fed up with
               | career politicians and bland technocrats that are killing
               | politics. We need doctors, lawyers, intellectuals,
               | farmers, businessmen, factory workers, and much more (in
               | no specific order) in our parliaments and amongst our
               | elected people. A sweet spot between reckless clowns and
               | psychopaths would be nice.
        
             | lolinder wrote:
             | In this case, it looks like Zelensky may be exactly what
             | Ukraine needs right now. He might just be playing another
             | part, but if so he's doing a really good job of it.
             | 
             | "The fight is here; I need ammunition, not a ride."
        
       | willis936 wrote:
       | I didn't think the banner of Anonymous as-used-by leftist
       | hacktivists was still active after the FBI's crackdown a decade
       | ago. Imagine a world where the FBI treated white supremacist
       | terrorists the same way they treat hacktivists.
        
         | kodah wrote:
         | Anonymous doesn't really have any political allegiance and
         | doesn't do things for the reasons you think they do them. Most
         | of those videos are made by non-technical people and are basic
         | propaganda - and that's a big part in shielding Anonymous from
         | too much federal heat. The people actually doing the work are
         | mostly there for the laughs and clout. Second, Anonymous is
         | mostly decentralized, much like terrorist networks. They gather
         | on image boards you're probably detestful of and post messages
         | on plain sight alongside a stream of repulsive content. They
         | also splinter themselves across various IRC networks and now
         | probably use more modern decentralized encrypted comms. That
         | makes them difficult to track.
        
         | TeeMassive wrote:
        
           | kergonath wrote:
           | You must be joking. Any sources to prop up that dubious
           | assertion? How many mass shootings or bombings in the last 20
           | years in either Europe or North America were done by self-
           | proclaimed communists?
        
             | TeeMassive wrote:
             | Black Lives Matter, which by the admission of its own
             | leaders is a Marxist organization, caused more than 2
             | billions dollars in insurance claims during the George
             | Floyd protests.
             | 
             | https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/factcheck/2022/02/22/fa
             | c...
             | 
             | https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2021/02/2020-protests-
             | changed...
        
         | ipaddr wrote:
         | The labelling is overboard.
         | 
         | Hacktivists are not white hat hackers. They are black or grey
         | and justify actions with personal morally. Judge each case by
         | it's own merits. A lot of regular people get treated as
         | terrorists when they do things like hack their school.
         | 
         | I haven't ever heard of white supremacist terrorist. I've heard
         | of terrorist, I've heard of white supremacist, but I don't
         | think the groups bi-sect. What is the last white supremacist
         | terror attack you remember?
        
           | willis936 wrote:
           | If you haven't heard of a white supremacist terror attack, it
           | is because you are ignorant of domestic terrorist activities.
           | That doesn't mean they don't exist.
           | 
           | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Domestic_terrorism_in_the_Unit.
           | ..
           | 
           | Also, you should revisit your hat definitions. White and
           | black hat are a matter of political perspective for each act
           | and issue, but hacktivists are definitively not grey hat.
        
             | Veen wrote:
             | And the FBI gave those attackers a pass, did it?
        
               | willis936 wrote:
               | Don't move the goalposts. White supremacist terror cells
               | are not being cracked down on the same way OWS activists
               | were. That's being given a pass.
        
           | pkilgore wrote:
           | Off the top of my head?
           | 
           | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pittsburgh_synagogue_shooting
        
             | ericbarrett wrote:
             | A few more:
             | 
             | 1995 Oklahoma City bombing, USA, 168 killed:
             | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oklahoma_City_bombing
             | 
             | 2019 El Paso Walmart shooting, USA, 23 killed:
             | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2019_El_Paso_shooting
             | 
             | 2019 Christchurch Mosque shooting, New Zealand, 51 killed:
             | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christchurch_mosque_shootings
        
         | Stevvo wrote:
         | It's an open-pseudonym, has gone through many iterations. For
         | all we know sometimes Anonymous _is_ the FBI.
        
           | HWR_14 wrote:
           | > For all we know sometimes Anonymous is the FBI.
           | 
           | An entirely deniable front for US cyberwarfare (or way to
           | rally hacktivists to their cause) seems like a valuable thing
           | for a nation state to create.
        
           | lowwave wrote:
           | wasn't there an original PGP signature that verify the first
           | Anonymous?
        
           | Geezus-42 wrote:
           | When I first heard of Anonymous they were going after
           | scientologist. It has definitely been used by a number of
           | groups over time, probably with some overlap.
        
         | bckr wrote:
         | That's the beauty of Anonymous, isn't it? It's a hydra.
        
         | befeltingu wrote:
         | Where are all these white supremacist terrorists and what
         | evidence is there that the FBI gives them a pass?
        
           | Geezus-42 wrote:
           | They seem to congrats around the Pacific Northwest.
           | 
           | https://www.ojp.gov/ncjrs/virtual-
           | library/abstracts/racist-a...
           | 
           | https://www.kuow.org/stories/extremist-groups-popping-up-
           | lef...
           | 
           | https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2015/07/northwest-
           | fr...
           | 
           | https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.seattletimes.com/seattle-
           | ne...
           | 
           | https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.seattletimes.com/seattle-
           | ne...
           | 
           | https://www.splcenter.org/states/washington
        
         | 1_player wrote:
         | Probably it's the NSA dressed as Anonymous, but honestly who
         | cares. Keep DDOSing, whoever is behind this.
        
       | mrtweetyhack wrote:
        
       | tartoran wrote:
       | RT seems unaffected at the moment. Was this a temporary outage?
        
       | ChildOfChaos wrote:
        
         | Angostura wrote:
         | Edgy!
        
         | tgv wrote:
         | The justification is that those sites are used to spread false
         | information to the Russian public. By blocking access to them,
         | they might start looking elsewhere, and won't be bombarded with
         | the "denazification" brainwash attempts.
        
           | GordonS wrote:
           | Putin accusing Ukraine leadership of being nazis was...
           | utterly bizarre (reminded me a bit of Trump). I mean of _all_
           | that people to say such a thing?!
        
             | leereeves wrote:
             | I suspect that in Russia "Nazi" implies anti-Russian rather
             | than anti-Semitic. The Germans killed about 20 million
             | Russians in WW2, including about 15 million civilians.
             | 
             | Perhaps those remarks sound bizarre to Western ears because
             | we interpret them differently.
        
               | mediumsmart wrote:
               | probably. btw: 27 million Russians - 14 million of them
               | civilians. German here. Nie wieder Krieg.
               | 
               | https://www.avwsu.org/the-liberation-of-kiev/
        
               | tgv wrote:
               | I think that number includes Ukrainians. And I can't
               | believe Putin didn't realize that that speech, his style
               | justification, would be seen and judged all over the
               | world.
        
               | HWR_14 wrote:
               | I'm sure Putin realized his speech would be seen and
               | judged worldwide. I don't think he cares. He probably
               | thinks he can just do whatever he wants and the world
               | will accommodate him.
        
               | kergonath wrote:
               | > The Germans killed about 20 million Russians in WW2,
               | including about 15 million civilians.
               | 
               | A sizeable fraction of these "Russians" were actually
               | Ukrainians.
        
               | leereeves wrote:
               | That's why I said "about 20 million" rather than 27
               | million (which is the consensus for the Soviet Union as a
               | whole).
               | 
               | Exact numbers aren't important in this context, they
               | simply illustrate that Russians have their own experience
               | with Nazis that isn't what Americans usually think about
               | when Americans think of Nazis.
               | 
               | The important point, about which I'd love to hear from
               | someone more familiar with Russian language and culture,
               | is whether the word "Nazi" is used in the same way in
               | Russia and America (when not referring to actual Nazis).
        
             | genericacct wrote:
             | He also accused them of being degenerates, which is funny
             | considering he's a guy that wears foundation, has botox
             | injections and facelifts..
        
             | mediumsmart wrote:
             | Azov battallion - google is your friend
        
               | ch4s3 wrote:
               | Those nuts were a bigger deal in 2014, and their
               | political party only has a few seats. Russia is hardly in
               | good standing with respect to right wing extremism.
        
               | kergonath wrote:
               | How are they in power in Ukraine? It's like saying that
               | all Germans are communists because of the Red Army
               | Faction.
        
             | throwaway52483 wrote:
             | Some details about this accusation are provided in this
             | video (which appears to be a piece of Russian propaganda,
             | with both interviewer and interviewee being writers for RT)
             | starting about 4 minutes into the video:
             | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3GkmdCaBECs&t=273s
        
           | hotz wrote:
           | Where is "elsewhere"? Western media pushes its own
           | propaganda.
        
         | FooBarBizBazz wrote:
         | That was my first reaction too.
         | 
         | There's a sibling post (by tgv) that makes a decent case for
         | why this is actually good and meaningful, why it actually hurts
         | the Russian propaganda effort, why maybe it'll affect Russian
         | morale. I hope so.
         | 
         | But I do understand your reaction.
         | 
         | The West's response has felt so underwhelming that I have been
         | _angry_ at its apparent impotence. All symbolic nonsense, it
         | feels:  "We're going to add Vladimir Putin's name to a list! So
         | that, should he hypothetically want to change some numbers at
         | one of our banks, he can't! That'll show him!"
         | 
         | Like, what the hell is that? Block the man's bank accounts? No,
         | if you weren't full of shit you would "find, fix, and finish"
         | him. Talk talk talk.
         | 
         | There was an interview on DW with the Polish politician
         | Radoslaw Sikorski. DW was doing its usual hemming and hawing
         | (which, let's be honest, I normally like; it tries not to go
         | crazy in any way), but Mr. Sikorski simply minced no words:
         | Germany gets about 1/3 of its gas from Russia and was going
         | like "should we stop buying it? We don't know! It's such a hard
         | decision!", while he, from Poland, which _depends on Russia for
         | 70% of its gas_ , was already going "cut off all purchases of
         | Russian gas; I don't care if it hurts". He wasn't _crude_ but
         | he _was_ blunt, and clear, and incredibly refreshing. You
         | immediately thought: This is the sort of leader we need.
         | Forceful _and_ intelligent.
         | 
         |  _Poland_ -- fucking _Poland_ -- had donated Stingers to
         | Ukraine. (Like, to its credit, Britain had shipped Stingers and
         | Javelins.) _There!_ _That_ is at least _doing something_. And
         | meanwhile Germany, which actually has a significant arms
         | industry, is sitting on its ass and, I don 't know,
         | investigating a steering committee.
         | 
         | And even on the front that merely _is_ the shuffling of assets,
         | the West is going,  "I don't know? Should we shut off SWIFT? We
         | still need some escalation options...". Dude, the man is
         | rolling goddamn tanks around and killing people; cutting off
         | SWIFT _doesn 't even rise to the level of proportionate
         | response._ You need to have done it _yesterday_.
         | 
         | Oh, and, if you're publicly saying "we can't do this because we
         | need to keep some leverage", it's _exactly equivalent_ ,
         | informationally, to you having _done_ it and _had no additional
         | leverage_ ; it is a _public admission of impotence_. Putin has
         | already priced this shit in.
         | 
         | "You and what army?"
         | 
         | I was reminded of that "physicals vs. virtuals" essay. Yeah, I
         | know it was sort of an apologia for -- well, first, the Ottowa
         | truckers, who may or may not actually be the evil right-wingers
         | Trudeau says they are (now that Putin's using it, this word
         | "de-Nazification" takes on a different ring, no?); and by
         | association, maybe also an apologia for the actual right-wing
         | grifters (Trump et al) who are trying to capitalize on them(?)
         | -- but I still thought it captured something that's been
         | bothering me for a long time. At some point _there is reality_
         | , and you cannot approach life purely as a matter of public
         | relations and the shuffling of assets.
         | 
         | I found a video on YouTube of a column of Russian tanks rolling
         | essentially-unopposed, single-file, on a bridge across the
         | Dnieper. A few token potshots. _What the hell is this?_ Even
         | _I_ know how you take out a motorcade: You ambush the lead and
         | the tail vehicles so the rest are sandwiched, and then you deal
         | with the rest as you 're able. (Or, it's been months, why are
         | there no charges on the bridge? Is this incompetence or some
         | level of strategy above my pay grade: "We'll need that bridge
         | later"?) I guess they didn't have antitank weapons? Is that not
         | itself a failure?
         | 
         | And then I look at the public reaction in the West and it just
         | sickens me. It's all "mourning" ( _What? The cause isn 't even
         | lost yet!!_) and "oh my heart is breaking!". Ok, _yes_ , my
         | heart _is_ fucking breaking because Europe is devouring itself
         | again, but are we really so exhausted that all we can do is
         | roll over with the blue-state version of  "thoughts and
         | prayers"?
         | 
         | My hope is that the Western powers are doing more than is
         | reported. That the apparent silence is just good opsec. That
         | they simply want to avoid attribution, when facing a nuclear
         | power.
         | 
         | So, fine, sending a flood of HTTP requests might be better than
         | nothing. But I better also start to see some high-level
         | Russians end up mysteriously dead.
        
         | rvz wrote:
         | There you go. Putin and his forces are really shaking in their
         | boots over those predictable DDoS attacks from Ukraine's
         | Anonymous finest. /s
         | 
         | It's as if that is all they can do, compared to Ukraine
         | themselves getting hit by the same attack from Russia and
         | throwing a malware wiper in the mix, propagating all over.
         | Ukraine has nothing to fight with really in cyber defences.
         | 
         | Might need to find a better way of attacking them rather than
         | using predictable attacks like that which are easily mitigated
         | against.
        
         | [deleted]
        
         | laurent123456 wrote:
         | That's a show of support for Ukraine, which is something.
        
         | agumonkey wrote:
         | heh, snark aside, it might have ripple in the population.
        
       | azalemeth wrote:
       | They have provided a "user-friendly ddos tool" here [1] as
       | discussed on reddit [2]. This does exactly what you'd expect it
       | to do - it makes a large number of connections every second. It's
       | completely and utterly dumb (and beware clicking the link!) but I
       | imagine that such attempts sufficiently at scale are large enough
       | to have a significant effect.
       | 
       | Whether or not rt.com going down internationally materially
       | affects Vladimir's plans or place in the world, however, is
       | another question.
       | 
       | [1] https://stop-russian-desinformation.near.page/ [2]
       | https://old.reddit.com/r/ukraine/comments/t18qm4/you_can_ddo...
        
         | markvdb wrote:
         | The mental health of so many people watching powerlessly is
         | also worth something. This gives anyone a chance of doing
         | something. It might help very little, but it _is_ at least a
         | grain of sand in the machine of death.
         | 
         | P.S. I'd encourage you to have a look at the js source code
         | before opening this page. It seems to be relatively clean,
         | readable and straightforward indeed.
        
       | spansoa wrote:
       | First time seeing a DDOS-Guard interstitial when visiting RT.com
       | 
       | I thought these were defacements, but it's just your common DDOS
       | playbook.
        
         | tentacleuno wrote:
         | The response for / has its Server header set to ddos-guard.
         | Looks like they've moved to commercial solutions.
        
       | otterley wrote:
       | rt.com appears to be up and running in the U.S.
        
       | TeeMassive wrote:
       | People often underestimate the effect of propaganda. I know very
       | high profile and highly intelligent people, think doctors and
       | lawyers, who think it still is an act of self-defense against
       | neo-nazis.
       | 
       | I can understand the argument of NATO encircling Russia, but the
       | invasion of a sovereign democracy can't be justified. Russia was
       | on losing track because of Russia, not Ukraine.
        
       | 52358 wrote:
       | that's cute and all, but I don't think the invading forces get
       | their orders from the defense ministry website
       | 
       | how does this change anything? feels more symbolic than anything
        
       ___________________________________________________________________
       (page generated 2022-02-26 23:02 UTC)