Minister for Information, Science and Technology, Kelver Darroux has condemned a massive Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack which crippled Dominica News Online for a number of days last week.
A DDoS is a malicious attempt to make a server or a network resource unavailable to users by overwhelming it with traffic from multiple sources.
“Basically all acts of cyber attacks are strongly condemned and most recently the breach of security on Dominica News Online is no exception,” Darroux told DNO on Tuesday.
According to Darroux, “company websites and people transacting business via the internet should be given privacy and be allowed to conduct business in a safe environment.”
He said government will continue to look at new legislation as it relates to proper laws to safeguard the technology sector.
“Notwithstanding this, each organization has a responsibility to ensure that proper firewalls and constant monitoring of websites are done,” he stated.
Just recently, Darroux called on the young people in Dominica to use the internet in a positive way.
“Let me also encourage the young people as well to use the technology in a very positive way,” Darroux said during a visit to the ICT Centre for Excellence and Innovation now under construction at the Dominica State College (DSC) . “Too many times we have heard stories of our young people using technology destructively … anytime you send a picture or any form of information that may be derogatory, it goes out there, becomes viral and the entire world sees it, so we have to be very careful with the information we put out there.”
Meanwhile, the severity of the attack on DNO shows that it was intentionally done and the reasons for and those behind it remain unknown.
I wonder what malicious mind(s) was behind the attack. I would look at who would gain with the elimination of DNO.
The response of the minister to the call by the Mujahardin to condemn the cyber attack on DNO is insignificant and lacks substance. It is hypocritical at best. He expressed absolutely no interest in working with DNO to catch the cyber criminals. It is not rocket science to figure out who are the criminals involved.
So this is the reason I was unable to access DNO on Wednesday evening. I tried and even telephoned my provider’s technician. Since I was able to access other Websites, I was informed the problem was not with my computer system. It was not until 11:00 pm last Wednesday I was able to access DNO. Later in the week I had a busy schedule and did not access DNO until this week .
I also thought of telephoning Dominica to find out whether there was an electricity problem when the service was restored.
Sorry to know this DNO. I hope the perpetrator(s) will be caught. These people pose a hazard to law-abiding people in the world. Their wickedness will not last forever. One day God will put a spoke in their wheel. Time will take care of them. It will not be to their satisfaction.
I hope your investigators continue to search for those people and that they are caught and brought to justice. I will pray for that too.
what about these young men who made the app Dominican are the worst set of people other countries are adoring this dudes whilst you guys criticizing
Sheep in wolf clothing
Only Now. But thanks to Angelo for ringing your ears over and over again.
Kelvar, only red shirts you own?
While I admire Darroux for his honesty on the DON matter, I am concerned about his job as the Minister of Technology.
What about yours? You should first concern yourself about yours.
This is a young man who could do well for the country if he had the opportunity but he is naïve he is not his own person and that’s the sadness in DA, every one should be allowed to do their job the best of his /her ability.
I wonder if de minista even see a shell screen
Don’t make me laugh! Darroux is minister of ICT, SCIENCE and TECHNOLOGY? What he know about SCIENCE and TECHNOLOGY? Another square peg in a round hole. Dominica really FINISH papa.
HOTEP!
And Lennox is what? A square peg in a square hole? I guess if Lennox becomes Prime minister Dominica will not be “FINISH.” At least the young man educated himself.
Is not IF Honourable Lennox Linton becomes PM, is WHEN he becomes PM.
He is a very well educated,well articulate man, who understand what it takes to propell this poor country forward. He will make it possible for you to get a job, so you will no longer beg!
I wonder who’s next on the attack list. Uhmmm
And it seems DNO has become even more careful and restricted about the comments it posts before dem fellas hit them with DDoS+
Kelvar please, you and your cronies were happy,i thought dno was anti labour,whoare you fooling dude.
Do not be narrow-minded, critical and sarcastic. DNO serves all Dominicans, far and wide and even those who are not D/cans. When this occurred we were all affected. You are no exception.
Darroux is the IT Minister. In all fairness to DNO, it is his job to speak up for the atrocity committed against DNO. Be pleased about that without bringing politics into it
Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm Mr Darroux is the government going to use its resources to assist DNO in finding out where the attacks came from? I mean you should be very concerned cause it could be the government system under attack next.
Further more can DNO inform us whether the government has reached out to it to assist in any investigation?
The government should not need to involve itself in the DNO, it’s a private company.
So why it is involving itself in Domlec, which is also a private company?
Technological attacks on private companies is the responsibility of the private company to secure their network and company according to best technological practices. The government can condemn but this is actually DNO’s fault for not securing their computing environments. Simply stop being lazy and waiting for everyone else to solve your problems that you yourself created! Udohreadyet!
if you leave your door open and a thief take your belongings it’s the fault of the person who left the doors open. A thief is a thief but a fool is also a fool!
Little boy even the us government and a large large corporation like sonny was attacked do you think their system was unprotected? This should also be a matter of national security to the government and the question is whether the government will assist DNO in an investigation.
So when big websites like CNN get DDOS’ed it was their fault for not securing their network? You have any idea how the internet works? If you did you would see the flaw in that stupid theif analogy. DNO is not a private home (in internet terms). It’s like a business place that’s open 24/7 and people can walk in and walk out when they want. Now imagine if somebody hires 100 people to walk in and stand in front the door (or keep walking in and out over over), nobody else would be able to get in. This is pretty much what happens with a DDOS attack. This can happen to any website, there are measures that can be put in place to mitigate the effects or prevent it but if somebody has enough power they can take down any site until case specific measures can be put in place to stem the attack
In this day and age, it does not matter what type of technology an enterprise has. Those wicked people will try to find a way. The US, Canada, other governments and private enterprises have been affected by those wicked people who appear to have nothing good to do with their time.
Idleness is the devil’s playground. All those who conduct wickedness will one day pay for it. God knows who they are and has taken note of them. They could be found. It is only a matter of time.
I suppose your conscience has urge you to condemned the act; however, the damage is already done;
Darroux, I am certain that there are many other Dominicans besides myself who would like to know what sort of technology, new or old which Ambrose in regards to the Internet has developed in Dominica which he could use for Internet security, as he boasted during the elections?
You people have no conscience; the idea is to silent the press in the country, and to muzzle people as me who Skerrit has no influence, nor control over; he cannot victimize us, hence, if you cannot destroy message, ensure the messenger does not deliver the message. DNO is simple a conduit through which we voice our opinions, destroy it and we are silent;…
Destroy it and we are silent; hat is the government ultimate goal: where is our democracy? I see a government attempting to dominate, and control every sphere of political, economic, and social life in the country, and as a result, I must conclude that we are not only governed by dictatorship, nevertheless, a totalitarian government is in operation in our country!
How could you make such a comment and assume that the government is responsible for this? It is an accusation and judgment. You must be careful with your words.
Pure nonense homeboy. The DNO dns was still accesible so it wasn’t that that was crippled. It was the actual domain hosting that was down so it wasn’t any type of dns corruption by using the central exchange point (as I assume you’re trying to imply). We would have been getting 404 errors or something instead it kept showing the site offline message that usually shows for sites that can’t pay their hosting anymore and get taken offline. This was an elaborate and coordinated DDOS attack by someone with access to the technology capable of doing that
Are you suggesting that DNO could not pay their bill?
Listen, I had a website site on the Internet for more than twenty years, and knows how much it cost to host a site per month. One of my daughters have three website’s used to conduct, business, so if you wish to fool yourself and believe it is because DNo could not pay their bill, I say more power to you!
My friend, how do we explain the following if you believe it is because DNO could not pay their bill.
“DDoS (distributed denial of service) attacks pose some of the biggest cybersecurity threats to organizations today. Due to their distributed nature, they are difficult to defend against, causing website and network disruption for organizations large and small.” This tip sheet discusses 10 things you and your organization should know about DDoS attacks and how you can address them
How come there is a tip sheet which teaches how to combat such attacks?
@Francisco Telemaque July 21, 2015 “DNO is simple a conduit through which we voice our opinions, destroy it and we are silent;…”
Fortunately for DNO and the majority of us Dominicans the “we” whom you have mentioned here is just a few like yourself–other wise DNO would have rated as the lowest blog site on the Internet–no human being with go there.
ADMIN: You said DNO would hae rated the lowest blog site on the Internet? Where did you get that info from. Our traffic from Monday July 20 to Wednesday July 22, was 141,860 hits. By the end of the week this is going to double. So it is not a few people who visit us. Strangly you say so yet you visit and even post comments. If it is the lowest blog site, why are you even visiting? We are thinking of banning you from making any comments.
Elizabeth you are in hot water again oui!
Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahhahahahhahahahahahahahahh!
I keep telling you; you talk out of your head half of the time. Elizabeth one hundred (141,860) forty one thousand-eight hundred-sixty hits is a lot of traffic going to DNO, people are interested in what they read about Dominica. That is why it burns my heart to read the nonsense some patrons write, such as the foolishness they are writing in regards to the U.S. Navy Hospital Ship.
On the Site, DNO can monitor where the hit originates, I am sure that more than 90% are from outside of Dominica. In order to maintain a successful Website, one need no less than two hundred hits per day, so you might understand the success of DNO!
Admin you are so very right some of these haters of DNO are so devious , pretentious & self righteous
DNO, I am sure that you have misunderstood me.
I was not speaking about your site, I was speaking about the nature of few commentators, on your site, what their comments could do to your reputation. I never said what you have spoken here.
I am sorry that you have taken it differently. But I hope that you too, have noticed that the commentator whom I a referring to, is not a very popular here–but then again, to each man his own.
@Francisco Telemaque July 22, 2015
Leave my name out of your filth. An shut up! The Website belong to DNO and they their right to do what they want to about it–I will say no more!
Dominica is one of the few countries in the world that does not have,” A Freedom of Information Act.”
Remember, Darroux, as soon as he was posted as information Minister, expressed himself regarding those who call radio station and radio station hosts peddling false news blah, blah, blah?
Dominicans were upset at the statements by the Minister. They expressed concerns fearing that Q95 and its callers, in particular, venting their views and opinions on issues affecting their lives, bad governance, corruption, injustices, quick wealth by a few, would be sanctioned, muzzled, victimized. Remember?
Foreign Communications expert has been utilised, paid by you tax-payers, to do all kinds of suspicious acts. Remember, Linton’s signature was forged on a document, used for mischief and put out on internet portraying him in bad light?
That despicable act was done by he/she. They fear the truth. To them, the people should not be informed of the issues or express…
Well Mr. Minister it’s time for you to pass an Electronic Crimes and Data Protection laws that make these types of activity illegal. This should also help Dominica to legally cooperate with other countries/organizations (think Interpol) to investigate such activities. We want to talk about being an ICT/IT country but still no protection for the masses. For example, the rights of individuals should be protected from cyber stalkers (think Facebook harassment as well as WhatsApp). Businesses need recourse to prosecute electronic crimes committed against their business by both employees and outsiders.
There are so many crimes that could be dealt with including identity theft, electronic fraud, child pornography, electronic terrorism, electronic stalking, etc. Stop talking and do something about it.
Garson Kelver you have finally lost every bit of credibility you had left. How dare you be so bold? All I will say is you all can fool some people some time but you can’t fool all the people all the time. One day, one day kang-kar-day! Just remember that we are all pilgrims and will one day be on the other side. God blue DNO.
Assertive, NOT Aggressive!
to survive in this land you must learn to laugh
Indeed! …anyhow you look at it. Thats why the PM is always smiling, unlike the other guy.
You say pm smiles, but pm laughs from below. I heard it right in the open. It was awful.
I hope so Kelver
Now I know how DLP lackeys,minions, cronies,subalterns,flunkies, sycophants,etc, are listening to Angelo and Arundel, two most potent on island hosting Weekly Headlines and Politics. This response is empty,unintelligible, vacuous, etc,and it’s coming from someone who was pressured to say something. Are you partnering with DNO to find who was behind the attack? Are you seeking help to do so? What if someone on the states pay roll is involved? WHY SUCH A LATE RESPONSE? I will repeat our governance in this poor country is the most terrible in the Caribbean!
I support the Hon. Minister in his condemnation of this attack, which leaves the question “who’s interest would be served by taking DNO out of circulation, making it inaccessible?”. Such attacks are hardly ever random but specifically targeted.
No need to point fingers here but the message is clear that DNO is effective and a threat to some or someone. Why else go to these lengths to try and muzzle it?
Mr. Darroux, if you are serious about your condemnation of the attack on DNO then work with them to get to the bottom of it. Help them, find out who did it. Can you or are you willing to do that? If not then it raises more suspicion about the origin.