It's All About Me, Man: 07/14/2013

Wednesday, July 17, 2013

[ItsAllAboutMeMan] Re: MoveOn under attack

Hey Anna

Oh, come on, who would do such a thing to MoveOn, so torpid and timid and middle of the road? It might be some real progressives that are fed up with your support of Obama and his elitist rich bosses - in which case, i say good on em, they couldn't have picked a better target.

have a nice day,

Matt

On Tue, Jul 16, 2013 at 5:06 PM, Anna Galland, MoveOn.org Civic Action <moveon-help@list.moveon.org> wrote:

Unknown attackers just launched the biggest assault on MoveOn's site in our 15-year history, crippling our work for several hours. Chip in to help us fight back and keep MoveOn strong.

MoveOn's site just weathered a massive online attack—the biggest in our 15 year history. We urgently need to beef up our defenses so we can keep elevating MoveOn members' campaigns that speak truth to power and be ready for the next one. Will you chip in $5 today to help make sure MoveOn is strong in the days and months ahead?

Chip in $5

Dear MoveOn member,

Anonymous attackers just tried to shut down MoveOn's site.

Over the weekend, someone unleashed millions of artificial requests at our servers, preventing legitimate traffic from getting through, and temporarily shutting down our website. It's what's called a Denial of Service Attack, and this was the largest one we've ever faced. Over 15 years, through wars and heated elections, we've never seen anything like this.

It was the equivalent of someone firing a shot-gun through our window—clearly aimed to intimidate us and interrupt our work. Tens of of thousands of MoveOn members and other visitors were unable to organize on our site—sign petitions, plan events, run campaigns—for hours as our ace tech team raced to fight the attack and get the site back up.

We're back up and running with new defense measure in place, but while this was the biggest attack we've faced, it won't be the last. We must quickly beef up our defenses so MoveOn members can keep running campaigns that speak truth to power without fear.

Will you chip in $5 today to help make sure MoveOn is on and strong enough to withstand the next attack when it comes?

Yes, I'll chip in to defend against anonymous attackers trying to shut MoveOn down.

While we were under attack, MoveOn staff couldn't access some of our most essential tech tools. Over 45,000 MoveOn members were unable to reach their petition signers and campaign data. Over 300 groups met this weekend to kick off a massive anti-fracking campaign—and all those groups were briefly locked out of our systems.

Paralyzing MoveOn for a few hours was a big blow. Taking us out for a day would be a disaster. Our 8 million members are everywhere, fighting bravely to change this country, working on timely campaigns—they can't wait for the tools and back-up we provide. We need to be ready for the next attack—and we will be.

With your support, we will:

Recover the costs of the extra tech time we already put in to recover from this most recent attack

Acquire new tools that'll help us recover more quickly next time this happens

Continue to invest in best-in-class technology to power our campaigns

Will you help us protect ourselves from future malicious attacks and continue to invest in powerful tools that are changing the country?

Yes, I can chip in $5 to defend against anonymous attackers and keep vital campaigns going in the face of intimidation and sabotage.

Thanks for all you do.
–Anna, Patrick, Alejandro, Jess, and the rest of the team

Want to support our work? MoveOn Civic Action is entirely funded by our 8 million members—no corporate contributions, no big checks from CEOs. And our tiny staff ensures that small contributions go a long way. Chip in here.

This email was sent to Matt Love on July 16, 2013. To change your email address or update your contact info, click here. To remove yourself from this list, click here.