How to Become an Anti-Russia Hacktivist
Watching the news about Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, it’s hard not to feel frustrated. If only there were some way to help! But what’s this? A website that promises you can participate in an online takedown of Russian websites, all from the comfort of your own desk, or couch? You may be inspired to strike a cyber-blow for freedom, but taking part in a DIY distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack is not the most effective—or legal—way to do that, as we'll explain.
The site in question states that it was “made with love in Norway.” It has a highly descriptive domain name that I won’t spell out entirely here. OK, the name is f*ck dash r*ssia dot com. (No, there’s no international agreement against domain names that contain obscene words.)
The colorfully named website makes a simple promise: “On this site we're targeting crucial infrastructure in Russia to prevent Putin from spreading more lies. Click the ‘start’ button and keep the tab open. It will send a constant flow of 100 attacks per second against Russia.” A banner at the top suggests you may want to use a VPN, because Russia is blocking traffic from other countries.
If 100 attacks per second aren’t enough for you, there’s an option to crank up the volume. You can choose Nuke ‘em (500 per second), Release the Kraken (1,000 per second), or Unleash Hell (5,000 per second). Remember, these attacks are coming from your computer, so choosing a super high rate is likely to slow down your machine.
Scrolling down the page you’ll find a list of sites subject to attack. If you dare to click the button, you’ll see the results of your DIY attacks. For reasons I’ll describe below, I don’t advise clicking the button, but I did turn it on briefly, just to see. It appears that
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