AP News Website Experiences Disruption, possibly due to a Denial-of-Service Attack
The news website of the Associated Press (AP) recently faced a disruption, indicating signs of a denial-of-service (DoS) attack. This type of attack involves overwhelming a website or network with excessive data, making it inaccessible to its intended users. The attack floods the targeted system with traffic or data, causing it to be unable to respond to normal requests.
DoS attacks can have different motives. Some attackers may aim to harm a business or organization for personal or competitive reasons. Others may use the attack as a distraction while committing other cybercrimes.
On Tuesday afternoon, users attempting to access apnews.com experienced malfunctions when trying to access individual stories. Some pages were empty, while others displayed error messages. The issue was resolved by Wednesday morning, according to AP. It’s worth noting that AP’s delivery systems to clients and mobile apps were not affected by the disruption.
Nicole Meir, a media relations manager at AP, mentioned that they observed periodic surges in traffic and are currently investigating the cause. As engineers addressed surges from one source, similar surges would emerge elsewhere.
In a surprising turn of events, on Tuesday morning, a hacktivist group known as Anonymous Sudan declared its intention to launch attacks on Western news outlets. Shortly after, the group posted screenshots claiming successful DDoS attacks on the AP and other news sites, rendering them inaccessible.
Cybersecurity analyst Alexander Leslie from the Recorded Future firm explained this tactic as a propaganda maneuver. The actor initiates a brief attack, captures “proof” of a short-lived outage affecting a limited user base, and then amplifies it as a major accomplishment. However, AP has yet to verify whether Anonymous Sudan was truly responsible for the attack.
These incidents highlight the ongoing challenges of cybersecurity and the need for organizations to employ robust defense measures against such attacks.