Darnell (Seize The Day)

Recently there was a Distributed Denial of Service (also known as DDoS) attack against Fosstodon, a prominent Mastodon instance.

@kev@fosstodon.org (Kev Quirk) quickly alerted everyone about the attack & took measures to mitigate the threat.

You probably had trouble accessing # Fosstodon for the last few hours. That's because we have (and still are) the target of a DDoS attack. Fosstodon was the target, but other Masto. Host customers were impacted because of it (sorry about that, folks!)

Unfortunately, we've had to take the decision to put Fosstodon behind # Cloudflare to mitigate the attacks. I don't like it either, but we need to do what we can to keep the lights on.

More details to follow... (via Kev Quirk)

Since Fosstodon is hosted upon Masto Host, their services were slightly affected as well (note: my Mastodon instance is also hosted by Masto Host, but I did notice any sluggishness from the attack).

There is currently a DDoS attack going on in the Masto.host infrastructure.

Some instances are affected. I am investigating and will report once I know more. (via Masto Host)

@mastohost@mastodon.social was able to shake off the attack like a duck shaking water off it’s back.

However, it made me wonder: should Fediverse admins have a secondary ActivityPub powered status account just in case a nefarious force temporarily takes the site offline‽

Should regular Fediverse folks have one as well‽

Short answer: Yes!

Long(er) Answer For Admins

Fediverse Admins should consider opening a secondary ActivityPub powered account that is hosted on a different server as their Mastodon, Misskey, Pleroma, etcetera, instance. It would also be wise to put it under a separate domain as well (just in case the main social domain is targeted by hackers).

I suggest microblogging Admins use WriteFreely as Fediverse admins will be able to inform the public without having to deal with the hassle of maintaining an active social network on yet another social platform.

If setup & hosting is too bothersome, then they could always create a premium account on Write.as & let @matt@writing.exchange handle the technical details of keeping their status blog online.

For Fediverse Folks

Yes, you should create another account, preferably on a different platform just in case your account is targeted.

If (God forbid) angry authoritarians attempt to exact their revenge upon my Mastodon account for mocking their political messiah as an outdated dinosaur...

...& it disappears, then I have the options of using my Misskey or WriteFreely account to communicate my thoughts to cyberspace.

Obvious Conclusion

Yes, having a secondary ActivityPub powered Fediverse account is something Admins & regular folks should consider; preferably using a different hosting provider, platform & if affordable, on a different continent (just in case of war or for political/legal reasons).

👨🏾‍💻 by @darnell@darnellclayton.com 🔛 @darnell@darnell.day 📧 darnell@darnell.day

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