CEASEFIRE DECLARED: AT&T Unblocks 4Chan

CEASEFIRE DECLARED: AT&T Unblocks 4Chan

mashable.com

AT&T did the Internet equivalent yesterday of poking a beehive with a stick: the company blocked parts of 4chan, the Internet forum known for its pranks, hacks and the invention of the Rickroll (see AT&T Blocks 4chan). Within hours, the site’s members had begun their attacks on AT&T, including the creation of a fake rumor about the death of AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson with the intent to lower AT&T’s stock price.

(visit the link for the full news article)

LOL, they created a rumor that the CEO was dead with intent to lower stock price.

Ummm....

Pretty sure that's what got them unblocked!

Guess they aren't just a bunch of random dimwitted hackers.

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FOR THE CONSPIRACIES...

As the article stated, this was literally poking a beehive with a stick.

They knew what was going to happen and I believe they wanted it to happen.

We all know about the NSA splitters that AT&T allowed, this shows that they do work with government intrests.

This may have been for another wave of "Cyber Terrorism" to help pass Mr. Rockefeller's internet security bill as the wave of "North Korean Cyber Terrorists" was.

Thoughts?

mashable.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

From article:

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/2471482e5e78.gif[/atsimg]

[edit on 27-7-2009 by breakingdradles]

lmao thats pretty funny. While I don't support 4chan, I don't want censorship. I DO however support A LOT of the stuff anon or whatever do though. I ESPECIALLY loved the whole scientology thing! That was freaking awesome!

[edit on 27-7-2009 by jeasahtheseer]

It is not over.

They do not forgive or forget.

This is the calm before the storm

Uhhhhhh Ohhhhhhhh

Looks like AT&T just messed up, pee'ing off Anon is bad business. They aren't some internet basement dwelling geeks.... Anon is Legion. I guess there's a new name on their shizzum list.

It's over....finally.

Here's what happened:

For the past three weeks, 4chan has been under a constant DDoS attack. We were able to filter this specific type of attack in a fashion that was more or less transparent to the end user.

Unfortunately, as an unintended consequence of the method used, some Internet users received errant traffic from one of our network switches. A handful happened to be AT&T customers.

In response, AT&T filtered all traffic to and from our img.4chan.org IPs (which serve /b/ & /r9k/) for their entire network, instead of only the affected customers. AT&T did not contact us prior to implementing the block. Here is their statement regarding the matter.

In the end, this wasn't a sinister act of censorship, but rather a bit of a mistake and a poorly executed, disproportionate response on AT&T's part. Whoever pulled the trigger on blackholing the site probably didn't anticipate [nor intend] the consequences of doing so.

4chan.org

AT&T had no idea what they were getting themselves into and the genius that decided to block 4chan is probably going to suffer for the decision. Didn't they think about this first? These are the guys who rigged the most influential person poll to put their founder above folks like Obama.

On the flip side, AT&T can give 4chan posters some troubles if they want. It is against the law to manipulate stock prices and the lies and rumors surrounding the false death claims, done for the purpose of hurting the stock price, can be seen as intentional manipulation.

Fools. You can't beat the silent majority.

Look everyone,

you can laugh all you want, this was a GOVERNMENT-RUN TEST



What better domain to block that would test the internet community's resolve?

Answer:

4CHAN

This was a scripted test, to gauge reaction to a shut-down of a major user content generated domain.

ATT/NSA

Watch what happens these next few days!

There will be other domains tested.

MARK TIME AND DATE I SAID THIS!

I like the image: 4Chan "God help us if they ever assemble."

I think AT&T and every other ISP should take note of what happens when you screw with the internet in America.

reply to post by projectvxn


4Chan alone could throw a wrench into anything dealing with internet shutdown.

Now whether it be for free speech or the lulz . . . who knows

They should have blocked them and blamed Iran or NK for it. focus the hackers on them for a bit just to see what they could do.

reply to post by MajesticJax

You're 100% correct. Think about: the internet is chalk FULL of crazy stuff, so why block /b/ except to piss off a particularly active/subversive segment of the internet community?

NSA and AT&T are one and the same. No doubt this was a coordinated effort to attempt to test out something they are toying around with.

Maybe they are looking for 1 particular individual, maybe they already found that person and wanted to see what his/her actions would be in response to the trigger? Or maybe they are testing out something much more sweeping, so they can model the response in some super-computer. Who knows...

[edit on 27-7-2009 by harrytuttle]

A totally different picture emerges if you look at AT&T's Official Press Release at:

AT&T Statement Regarding img.4chan.org

Beginning Friday, an AT&T customer was impacted by a denial-of-service attack stemming from IP addresses connected to img.4chan.org. To prevent this attack from disrupting service for the impacted AT&T customer, and to prevent the attack from spreading to impact our other customers, AT&T temporarily blocked access to the IP addresses in question for our customers. This action was in no way related to the content at img.4chan.org; our focus was on protecting our customers from malicious traffic.

Overnight Sunday, after we determined the denial-of-service threat no longer existed, AT&T removed the block on the IP addresses in question. We will continue to monitor for denial-of-service activity and any malicious traffic to protect our customers.

So, if you read between the lines...

One single AT&T Customer calls AT&T Technical Support on the Weekend and tells the Support Representative with a thick Hindi accent who barely speaks Engrish named "Bob" that his computer is undergoing a DDoS Attack from the same IP Address belonging to img.4chan.org (207.126.64.181). AT&T Technical Support blocks incoming traffic from that IP Address (207.126.64.181) until an Administrator comes in Monday morning and notices no suspicious traffic originating from that IP Address, so AT&T removes the block.

What this means is that anyone could take advantage of this as a Social Hack to screw over someone they don't like.

Got a beef with the Republican Party? Call AT&T Technical Support and tell them that you are getting a DDoS Attack from 64.203.98.31 (GOP.com) and they'll block that website for all their customers until someone actually checks and determines there is no such DDoS Attack originating from that address.

Upset with the President? Call AT&T Technical Support and tell them that you are getting a DDoS Attack from 96.6.58.135 (whitehouse.gov) and they'll block that website for all their customers until someone actually checks and determines there is no such DDoS Attack originating from that address.

You'd think that AT&T would change their S.O.P. to require that their Technicians actually verify these things before blocking all traffic originating from those addresses, rather than go on the word of a single customer.

reply to post by fraterormus


I think your taking it to extremes and more then likely it was not just one person. Like I stated in the other thread before we had the facts, its not against net neutrality if the site is deemed as causing service or performance issues for its customers. This isn't the first time an ISP has done that and it won't be the last.

Example: There was a worm exploiting IE browsers and outlook awhile back and it was bombing ISP's through Gmail accounts because they were one of the last to provide a fix for it. A few ISP's like Comcast blocked all incoming mail from those servers for a day or 2 until it was patched.



[edit on 27-7-2009 by whoshotJR]

Originally posted by MajesticJax

... this was a GOVERNMENT-RUN TEST...

This was a scripted test, to gauge reaction to a shut-down of a major user content generated domain.

I totally agree. It's not over by a long shot - from either side's perspective.

Originally posted by whoshotJR
I think your taking it to extremes and more then likely it was not just one person.

I'm not taking things to extremes at all. The AT&T Press Release specifically says "an AT&T customer". They did not state "AT&T customers" or "some AT&T customers" or "numerous AT&T customers" but used a singular to denote but one.

You are right, that when a Bot-net, Zombie-net, or the mass exploitation of a discovered security flaw, or any other kind of attack that may threaten the security of any ISP's subscribers at large, then Net Neutrality takes the back seat temporarily to ensure that such things are limited in their scope and do not spread to their subscribers. That is an acceptable instance and it does happen all the time.

However, according to AT&T this isn't the case at all, in this particular instance. Instead, it appears to be a big "Boo Boo" that they made upon the unsubstantiated claims of ONE solitary AT&T subscriber. AT&T made a bad and tried to sweep it under the rug as being concerned for their subscribers, which had anyone verified the claim, they would have realized it had not been and wouldn't have to do some creative housecleaning first thing Monday morning.

I'm not criticizing the practice, I'm criticizing the action on the word of a single subscriber without verifying the veracity of their claims. That is an example of an unacceptable instance that should never happen, even if it is just AT&T being overly cautious.

how come i didnt know until now about this 4chan?
stupid at&t thinking they can do **%%.
like the times our internet provider tryed to block illegal download sites.
we went torrents..and they cant touch them.
the governemnt should know..on the internet..NO ONE CAN TOUCH US.
im going to this 4chan wonder if i can become a member

Originally posted by Stillalive
how come i didnt know until now about this 4chan?
stupid at&t thinking they can do **%%.
like the times our internet provider tryed to block illegal download sites.
we went torrents..and they cant touch them.
the governemnt should know..on the internet..NO ONE CAN TOUCH US.
im going to this 4chan wonder if i can become a member

I wouldn't recommend that, you will see things that will scar you for life. You could be scrolling down through some interesting stuff and then suddenly WTF? OH MY EYES, IT BURNS IT BURNS!!!

Seriously, you ain't missing anything and your life will only be better not knowing that place exists. But if you insist, 4chan.org is where it's at.

Originally posted by breakingdradles

CEASEFIRE DECLARED: AT&T Unblocks 4Chan

mashable.com

AT&T did the Internet equivalent yesterday of poking a beehive with a stick: the company blocked parts of 4chan, the Internet forum known for its pranks, hacks and the invention of the Rickroll (see AT&T Blocks 4chan). Within hours, the site’s members had begun their attacks on AT&T, including the creation of a fake rumor about the death of AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson with the intent to lower AT&T’s stock price.

(visit the link for the full news article)

oh Snap ! They messed with the bull and are now getting the horns!

Never mess with those who can bring you down in a second...

I would have never thought about the fake rumor to drop the stocks....That is genius and a true kick in the balls to AT&T......