MaltaToday targeted in DDoS attack

MaltaToday has been targeted in a distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack by an unknown third-party.

On Tuesday, our monitoring systems detected an unusually high volume of traffic directed at our servers. This surge was not from our regular user base but rather from numerous sources across the globe, characteristic of a coordinated DDoS attack.

The attackers used a network of compromised computers, known as a botnet, to flood our servers with traffic, making it difficult for legitimate users to access our services.

We understand that this attack may have caused inconvenience and disruption to your experience on our website. Please know that we are doing everything in our power to minimize these effects and restore full functionality as quickly as possible.

During this time, you might experience slower loading times or temporary unavailability of certain features. We deeply apologize for this and appreciate your patience and understanding.

The MaltaToday website is also currently unavailable to readers outside Malta.

What is a DDoS attack?

A distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack is a malicious attempt to disrupt the normal traffic of a targeted server, service or network by overwhelming the target or its surrounding infrastructure with a flood of Internet traffic.

DDoS attacks achieve effectiveness by utilizing multiple compromised computer systems as sources of attack traffic. Exploited machines can include computers and other networked resources such as IoT devices.

From a high level, a DDoS attack is like an unexpected traffic jam clogging up the highway, preventing regular traffic from arriving at its destination.