Thread by @Chxta

Today's lesson is about @GazetteNGR and the attacks that happened on their website a few weeks ago, and yesterday.

Both attacks were the classic denial of service attacks aimed at getting the site offline.

A distributed denial of service (DDOS) is an attack done by multiple computers flooding the server that the attacker wants to get offline with false traffic requests, thus overwhelming it and putting it offline.

Anyone can fall victim to DDOS.

Now here is the thing: a DDOS can be bought.

Most of the people who sell DDOS attacks as a service are based in #Russia or #Ukraine.

@kaspersky estimates that a botnet could cost as low as $25 an hour, so if you want to keep a website offline, for a day that should cost you ₦285k, and if you decide to do it for a month, at least ₦8 million.

How many people in #Nigeria have those kinds of resources?

Let's assume for a moment that it is true that @GazetteNGR has put questionable, perhaps libellous information out there.

Would it not be a whole lot cheaper to take them to court, get a judgement and hefty settlement which may end up getting them offline permanently?

This thing of constantly going in heavy, or doing things "with immediate effect", never help.

In short, they always make things worse.

People in government circles need to understand this. You cannot throw power about for the precise reason that you have this power.

Due process is a tool, and is a much stronger weapon.

Using the tools of state to try and silence @GazetteNGR will always backfire, will win them more sympathy, and will delegitimise the government even more.