Today, like the past few days, we have had some downtime. Apparently some script kids are enjoying themselves by targeting our server (and others). Sorry for the inconvenience.
Most of these ‘attacks’ are targeted at the database, but some are more ddos-like and can be mitigated by using a CDN. Some other Lemmy servers are using Cloudflare, so we know that works. Therefore we have chosen Cloudflare as CDN / DDOS protection platform for now. We will look into other options, but we needed something to be implemented asap.
For the other attacks, we are using them to investigate and implement measures like rate limiting etc.
This. When you’re life sucks and you don’t know how to deal with it all, there’s something viscerally satisfying about the idea of making other people hurt as much as you do. It’s a really infectious mindset, too. I wish I hadn’t found 4chan when I was in my early teens, because I’m still trying to manage that need to be cruel. As long as Lemmy.world is an easily kickable sandcastle, it will be kicked.