So, for those of you who don’t know it, the world’s most popular micro-blogging platform, Twitter has been completely down for over two and a half hours so far today due to a Denial of Service attack.
Now, Twitter goes down pretty regularly. It’s difficult to scale up this rapidly for any business. But this is the first time that I can remember it being down for so long in a single block, especially in a critical part of the day. And it’s not just that they are serving up their standard “over capacity” message. The entire Web site has vanished!
I think the interesting thing about this is that it should emphasize how vulnerable we all are to relying on a single communication network with our contacts. It demonstrates why having multiple social systems is a good thing. If Twitter is down, one should be able to hop on FaceBook and stay in touch.
{ 7 comments… read them below or add one }
I’ve been on Facebook via Seesmic Desktop, but, I’ve actually had trouble logging in there, too. Not sure if that’s better yet. I’ve even buckled down and opened up FriendFeed – the one I don’t really like all that much.
Come back, Twitter!!! We need you!!!!!!!!!! :P
I`m not that much into twitter thou…so didnt effect me much ;)
Neither did it affect me…but I agree with you relying on a single communication network can be problematic in situations like these.
Too many users on twitter? I dont think so, more of a security or backup exercise.
Facebook was being targeted at the same time. I use Skype as an IM service, and their status updates could also double up as a twitter or FB type status. We are actually far too reliant on technology. We suffered a power failure earlier this morning, and boy was I loast for the next 45 minutes!
Twitter is increasingly important to international affairs. I agree with you that this reaffirms the need for various communications networks. This recent attack may be a job for the President’s new Cybersecurity Czar. See http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/05/25/AR2009052502104.html
Please note that the previous link to the Washington Post works if you remove the period from the end.