Ask HN: What should GitHub do about the DDoS attack?

8 points

11 years ago

Right now Github is undergoing a heavy, protracted DDoS attack [0], presumably orchestrated by the Chinese government or by an independent group in China. Github has become an important part of the infrastructure of the Internet. At any given moment there may be several links in the HN feed that go back to Github pages. They are no doubt facing a hard choice: (a) pull the two projects that are the focus of the attack, which might cause the attack to subside; or (b) continue in the name of freedom of speech to host the projects and absorb the cost in infrastructure and poor site performance.

Here it's not freedom of speech in China that is at stake; it's freedom of speech outside of China that is at stake. But Github will no doubt find it hard to foot the additional bill indefinitely, and there is a noticeable degradation in the liveness of their services. What should they do?

You can imagine them braving a DDoS attack like this for a few days. But governments have trillions of dollars at their disposal, and the match in this case is probably an uneven one.

Should governments concerned with protecting freedom of speech step in to help out with the costs of a company like Github maintaining business as usual in the face of such attacks?

(I am not affiliated with Github in any way.)

[0] https://status.github.com/messages

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