RT

Summary

The RT website experienced its largest recorded DDoS attack, reaching 10 Gbps intensity as a UDP-flood assault, causing temporary slowdowns and brief unavailability before being mitigated by technical defenses. While no group claimed responsibility, the incident mirrored previous cyber assaults targeting coverage of sensitive topics like the Chelsea Manning trial and WikiLeaks disclosures. Past disruptions lasted several hours during similar attacks claimed by groups such as AntiLeaks, though this event resulted in minimal downtime despite sustained attack traffic. Operations continued via alternative platforms during the incident, maintaining coverage of concurrent global events.

Motives

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TTPs

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Description

On September 17, 2014, RT.com experienced its largest recorded Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack, peaking at 10 gigabits per second. The assault began on Wednesday and was identified as a UDP-flood attack, a method that overwhelms servers with fabricated traffic. RT's technical infrastructure deflected the bulk of the attack, resulting in only a few minutes of full unavailability despite the sustained assault. Users experienced temporary slowdowns in accessing the website during the incident. RT's press service confirmed the attack was successfully mitigated due to the platform's existing protective measures, though the DDoS attempt continued beyond the initial disruption. No hacker group claimed responsibility for this specific incident, distinguishing it from previous cyber assaults against the organization.

Historical context indicates RT.com had faced multiple DDoS attacks before this event, particularly during coverage of sensitive geopolitical stories. A notable prior incident occurred on February 18, 2013, when a six-hour outage disrupted access following RT's reporting on Chelsea Manning's trial and WikiLeaks disclosures. Another significant attack in June 2013 rendered the site inaccessible for nearly five hours, with hacker collective AntiLeaks—opponents of Julian Assange's WikiLeaks—publicly claiming responsibility. The 2014 attack coincided with RT's coverage of ongoing Manning trial developments and anti-government protests in Turkey, mirroring past targeting patterns tied to controversial reporting. During the September 2014 disruption, RT maintained real-time updates via its Twitter account to ensure continuous news delivery. The incident underscored the persistent cybersecurity challenges faced by media outlets covering high-profile geopolitical events.

Sources

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