Security experts have yet to identify who is behind the
distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks that hitTwitter last week.
Despite being such a high-volume, high-profile DDoS attack,
investigators have admitted that there is little evidence to
identify the attackers or their location, according to
reports.
But they have found evidence to back claims that the attacks
that downed Twitter and affected Facebook, YouTube and Live Journal
were aimed at a pro-Georgian activist.
ITN report on Twitter attacks last week:
Twitter co-founder Biz Stone said in a
blog post on Friday that the "ongoing, massively coordinated
attacks on Twitter" appeared to have been "geopolitical" in
motivation.
But Twitter did not feel it was appropriate to "engage in
speculative discussion about these motivations", he wrote.
Security firm
McAfee has identified six separate DDoS attacks on accounts
with these services registered to a user known as "Cyxymu" who is
linked to anti-Russian protests.
Cyxymu's Gmail account was also targeted by a simultaneous spam
e-mail campaign.
According to McAfee, the attacks were carried out by a botnet
made up of hijacked computers in Brazil, Turkey and India.
Twitter claims no data or personal information of any kind has
been compromised in the DDoS attack. The company has committed to
improving system responses to assaults to ensure they do not
interfere with the microblogging service.