Awoke this morning to my RSS reader being a complete pile of shite. I gave up, made a nice warm beverage and started digging in to figure out what was going on with Reeder. Turns out, Feedly is currently getting pounded by a Distributed Denial Of Service (DDoS) attack.
What’s a Distributed Denial Of Service Attack? Basically, two or more people (or compromised computers, aka bots) are ringing the doorbell at Feedly over and over again making it impossible for anyone else to use the door. These bots use up all the system resources on a server so that legitimate traffic gets turned away. Servers eventually overload and stop performing the tasks they were originally intended to do. In Feedly’s case that includes serving up RSS through their web app.
In a blog post published online, the company has noted that it is currently working with law enforcement agencies and other sites (Evernote) facing the same attack at the moment, trying to track down the culprits. Thankfully your data is safe and there were no breaches that lead to privacy compromises.
The hackers tried to extort the company from money, offering to turn off the DDoS once the payment was made.
As of 6:25 a.m. PST this morning, the company was beginning to bring its services back online. While it could be up and running any moment, you news junkies may want to find a new vector for your consumption while the lights are out at Feedly.
