This morning at 9:21am, our website – nubareports.org – was hit with a massive DDoS attack, taking the website offline for about 5 minutes. Since then, the site has been restored and is still running.
The attack comes two days after a Nuba Reports film was screened at the 27th meeting of the Human Rights Council in Geneva on Monday. It was viewed by delegates from many countries, including Sudan. The film, Khartoum’s War on Sudan, takes a cumulative look at human rights abuses in the Nuba Mountains, Blue Nile and Darfur since April 2012.
The hackers are using the tools Crazy Pinger and UDP Flood to launch the DDoS attack with a large amount of bots. DDoS attacks are used to make a website inoperable. They are often followed up by individual attacks.
Nuba Reports is a media outlet based in South Kordofan, with smaller teams in Darfur and Blue Nile. Journalists and international observers have been blocked from visiting these regions for the last 3 years. Nuba Reports’ mission is to provide credible, nuanced coverage of the war and its impact on civilians in these regions.
The film was shown to the council to provide additional context on Sudan as we operate in areas the UN’s Independent Monitor is unable to access. Nuba Reports takes its mission to provide comprehensive, detailed reporting on isolated regions seriously and verifies all of its reporting using GPS, photographs and video.
You can watch the film here.
As journalists come increasingly under fire, the Nuba Reports team hopes you will share this information about our outlet’s experience.
Thank you,
The Nuba Reports Team
