MALICIOUS INTENT
(Update: Looks like the Gmail log-on problem was transitory. I was able to log on as of 11:20 am PST. The cause of the original problem though, is still unknown)
Yesterday Six Apart's Typepad service, on which this blog is hosted, along with millions of others, was down from 4PM PST through most of the evening. The cause apparently was a sophisticated denial of service attack by third parties, and not internal issues at Six Apart, which has caused outages in the past. (Update: Q Daily News has a detailed post on what apparently happened to Six Apart/Typepad, found here).
Today, as of a few minutes ago (10:45 am PST), I can't seem to log onto my Google Gmail account from several computers.
I don't know if this is as widespread as the Typepad situation yesterday, or even if it's from a related cause.
Here's the message I get when I try and log into Gmail:
"Server Error
We're sorry, but Gmail is temporarily unavailable. We're currently working to fix the problem -- please try logging in to your account in a few minutes."
Here's the explanation of yesterday's attack from Six Apart/Typepad's Status page:
"Since approximately 4:00 pm Pacific Daylight Time on May 2nd, Six Apart has been the victim of a sophisticated distributed denial of service attack.
This has affected all of Six Apart's sites, causing intermittent and limited availability for TypePad, LiveJournal, TypeKey, sixapart.com, movabletype.org and movabletype.com. Our network operations staff is working around the clock with our Internet access providers to resolve the issue.
We appreciate your patience and support, and will provide updates as we have them."
What's ironic is that this is occurring on a day I'm attending Always On's ON HOLLYWOOD, a conference in LA, where much of the discussion so far is focused on how video content and services of all types are poised to go mainstream on the internet.
At a time when we're having difficulty securing the delivery of text-based mainstream and essential services, one can only imagine what happens when you add tons of mainstream audio and video content into the mix.
I guess this is the new reality we've got to live with here on in, where critical, mainstream services on the internet are attacked and/or crippled on a random, ad hoc basis, for uncertain motives. Not sure if there's a solution, but there needs to be a broader discussion of the problem and the options.
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