Suindependent.com was down for a few days this weekend due to a cyber attack — a distributed denial of service, or DDoS, attack.
A DDoS attack is an illegal maneuver that floods a server with artificial traffic, thereby rendering it unable to respond to legitimate attempts to access it.
A DDoS attack is by definition a form of cyberterrorism. That may sound like an inflammatory term, but as Eugene Kaspersky, founder of international software security group Kaspersky Lab, said, “With today’s attacks, you are clueless about who did it or when they will strike again. It’s not cyber-war, but cyberterrorism.”
However, I think that “clueless” is an excessively broad term for this situation.
The only real information available in an attack like this is an IP address, and that’s not conclusive information; it describes where to some event, but not who.
While we do not know who was responsible for the attack, and I will most certainly make no accusations, it is a fun exercise in speculation. And it’s interesting to note the timing of the attack: it happened during the trial of Varlo Davenport. Who would want the most candid examiners of Davenport’s villainous nemeses rendered silent during that trial?
Of course, The Independent is a publishing company, not a website, so we simply posted Varlo Davenport’s victory over his barbaric, morally bankrupt accusers directly to social media.
It’s not surprising that someone would resort to cyberterrorism in an attempt to censor the most outspoken critic of the crooked status quo in southern Utah. The rest of the southern Utah press has published, in my opinion, milquetoast coverage of Varlogate. They are scared — and in this Dutch oven of a social environment, understandably so — that someone might pull advertising dollars … or launch a cyber attack against them.
This is why The Independent matters. We have an open door policy for submissions from the community in the interest in unquenchable public discourse to maximize transparency in public affairs. We are not afraid of boycotts or threats, and we exist to serve the southern Utah community, not Mammon and Sons.
Youth of southern Utah, take heed at what is going on around you. Your elders tried to circumvent and undermine the law, and they failed.
The court tried to trample the Constitution by attempting to gag the press. It failed.
Biff “The Spliff” Williams, with the help of a consortium of accomplices, appears to have orchestrated an attack against an innocent man, seemingly to cover up an illegal attempt to intimidate him into academic dishonesty. He failed.
After Undiegate, a certain local religious community tried to organize a boycott against the Independent last year. It failed.
And since the recent cyber attack on suindependent.com was of no real consequence to us, as a political attack it failed.
All of these failures illustrate one harsh, undeniable fact: The stranglehold of the southern Utah theocratic oligarchy is loosening every day. Southern Utah is changing faster than they can keep up with, and they are losing control. This is no longer the lawless, polygamous clusterfuck that their grandpappies founded, and we are sick and tired of their good ol’ boy bullshit.
Congratulations, Mr. Davenport. Know that what you have been put through over the past couple of years was not for nothing. Through their outrageous antics in their ludicrous case against you, the sins that your enemies try so hard to keep hidden have been thoroughly exposed, and the public will not soon forget it. We are grateful for your courage and your perseverance.
As for Biff “The Spliff” Williams and all his cronies both above and below — including every member of the Washington County political and legislative machinery who by at least their silence and inaction are complicit — shame on every one of you. The southern Utah community as well as the Dixie State faculty, student, and alumni are ready for your letter of resignation, Mr. Spliff. Dixie State University has a bad enough reputation already without people like you smearing their shit all over everything.
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I think you are flattering yourself with the DDOS and giving the protagonists more credit than they deserve.
I think one famous recent quote says it all with the out and out lies, failed attempt to silence’ and the railroading attempt by the ‘ good old boy’s club in St. George’. “What Difference Does It Really Make?
I think some half way honest club members might be temporarily embarrassed yet will sit back and say nothing, and it’ll all blow over. Won’t it Bizz? huh, huh won’t it? NOT!