Atheist websites attacked

Recently the Global Atheist Convention website suffered a DDOS (Distributed Denial of Service) attack, which caused the Global Atheist Convention and the Atheist Foundation of Australia websites to be taken offline. This was a network attack and we have been informed it was specifically aimed at our websites. While we do not know source or reason for the attacks, they came in the wake of news that Global Atheist Convention has already sold 1,000 tickets and will be the largest gathering of atheists and other freethinkers in Australia’s history. This may have been not just an attack on atheism, but an attack on freedom of speech.

The following story has featured in The Age, The Sydney Morning Herald, The Canberra Times, The Brisbane Times, The Inquirer, The Press and ZDNet.

Cyber attacks smite atheist websites | October 21 2009 | The Age

Australian atheists are under attack, with the websites of both the Atheist Foundation of Australia and the Global Atheist Convention knocked offline in a major cyber attack yesterday afternoon.

The "distributed denial of service" attacks flooded the websites with traffic, forcing them offline about 5.20pm yesterday.

As of this morning, the foundation had still not been able to restore the websites.

The attacks may be related to the Global Atheist Convention, which is being held in Melbourne in March next year. Speakers include Richard Dawkins, author of The God Delusion and comedy writer Catherine Deveny.

About 1000 tickets have been sold so far through the Global Atheist Convention website, which was set up, and is operated, by the AFA.

The AFA is billing the event as the largest gathering of atheists in Australian history but ticket sales have had to be halted for now due to the cyber attack.

http://www.theage.com.au/technology/security/cyber-attacks-smite-atheist...