[AmrEldib]

Let's try to put this DDoS attack in some context aside from the technical part.

As @scrollaway mentioned, 6 weeks ago, Bruce Schneier posted that several companies told him that they're detecting attempts to probe their networks and find ways to bring it down https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2016/09/someone_is_le...

Now let's look at the progress of events:

- Hillary Clinton's personal email server was hacked a while ago.

- A lone hacker published a document obtained by hacking the DNC servers. The document includes opposition research on Donald Trump and how Hillary can attack him in the election.

- Wikileaks published emails obtained by hacking the DNC

- US intelligence agencies confirmed that Russia was behind the DNC hack

- It was reported that the CIA is starting a cyber attack against Russian targets. http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/cia-prepping-possible-cy...

- This is happening while the war in Syria and Iraq is growing. The Russians are there to "fight ISIS" but they have deployed an air defense system even though ISIS doesn't have any air force.

- Russia's only air craft carrier is trespassing through UK waters to get to Syria in a show of force that doesn't really add anything to their military capabilities there.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/oct/20/russian-fleet-...

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/oct/19/convoy-of-russ...

- Finland (yes, Finland) is increasingly worried about Russia. They violated their air space, and they're questioning Finland's independence. Finland shares a long boarder with Russia.

http://www.businessinsider.com/r-finland-sees-propaganda-att...

- US ships were attacked near Yemen after they're bombed some targets the belong to the rebels. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/oct/13/us-enters-ye...

- US election is in 3 weeks and Donald Trump is openly in love with Putin. Trump questioned the benefit of NATO which is the basis for Europe stability after the 2nd world war.

Say Hello to World War III, everybody!

[leesalminen]

> US election is in 3 weeks and Donald Trump is openly in love with Putin.

He states that he's never met Putin nor has any holdings in Russia. He has stated that he is open to positive relationships with the Russian government.

> Trump questioned the benefit of NATO which is the basis for Europe stability after the 2nd world war.

I believe he stated that he wants NATO to "pay their fare share" in the costs of maintaining the organization.

I'm not a Trump supporter but we shouldn't believe everything we read.

[eridius]

Trump says he never met Putin, now. In the past, he said he did. I just did a search for "trump met putin" and found a bunch of news sites reporting that in a GOP debate a while ago Trump said

“I got to know him very well because we were both on ‘60 Minutes,’ we were stablemates, and we did very well that night.”

[thomask0]

Trump was boasting in that debate about nothing, they were on the same episode of 60 minutes but they were not even on the same continent for that episode.

http://time.com/4108198/donald-trump-60-minutes-putin/

[eridius]

That's not really the point. The point is Trump is now saying he hasn't, but in the past he said he has. Not only is he contradicting his earlier statement, but it also makes him not trustworthy. And of course, if he was boasting about having supposedly met Putin in the past, that means he thought it was a good thing to boast about, which suggests that he is sympathetic to Putin and to Russian interests.

[kettu228]

> - Finland (yes, Finland) is increasingly worried about Russia. They violated their air space, and they're questioning Finland's independence. Finland shares a long boarder with Russia.

The Finns actually have still quite good relationship with Russia (better than other neighbors) and nobody's actually questioning Finland's independence. Baltic countries is a different story.

Source: A Finn here.

[AmrEldib]

It's good to know things are clam, I was just quoting the article. Not sure where they got that from

> Finland is becoming increasingly worried about what it sees as Russian propaganda against it, including Russian questioning about the legality of its 1917 independence

[faktorialas]

Lithuanian here, can confirm. Quite scared of Russia, for (what I hope are) understandable reasons.

[fokinsean]

> - Russia's only air craft carrier is trespassing through UK waters to get to Syria in a show of force that doesn't really add anything to their military capabilities there.

If they were really gearing up for war why would they move their only carrier away from the mother land. Your article even says it is more of a "show of force" than start of war.

So how did you jump to WW3?

[knz]

I'm sure that carrier is being followed by multiple NATO submarines as well.

It seems incredibly unlikely that a global war would start over Syria when we've had 60 years of proxy conflict instead. Russia or NATO have absolutely nothing to gain from an open military conflict.

[DominikR]

> - Finland (yes, Finland) is increasingly worried about Russia. They violated their air space, and they're questioning Finland's independence. Finland shares a long boarder with Russia.

Finland isn't worried, they have had stable relations for half a century as both sides agreed to not mess with each other. They have even refused to join NATO because it is actually safer for Finland and vice versa.

Cowboys with missiles stationed on Russia's border making hyperbole statements (like you do) - now that would be a real threat. (the same was also true the other way around with the Soviets stationing missiles in Cuba)

[knz]

> Say Hello to World War III, everybody!

Is this sabre rattling or the prelude to a global conflict? Surely at worst it will (continue to) be a proxy war between NATO and Russia in Syria and nothing more? What motive is there for Russia or NATO to engage in open warfare? I'm not sure that a slow and prolonged lead up to an open war would even be effective in this situation.

Perhaps it should be "Say hello to Cold War v2.2017"?

[fokinsean]

Hopefully they stick to semver

[planteen]

Your threat can't be parsed due to depreciation of the old rhetoric API. Please upgrade your rhetoric to 2.3.x.

[AmrEldib]

I like this version number better :)

[heurist]

I just want to sell my software, why does everyone have to fight?!

Thank you for these links. I'm trying not to get wrapped up in conspiracies but am increasingly worried by the mounting conflict. I'd love to hear a calm, reasoned response from someone more knowledgable than me on these topics.

[eternalban]

The global powers are negotiating with themselves, and consolidating state power at home. Proxy wars for the former, and fear mongering at home for the latter.

The players are the 0.001% who control these states and the rest (we) are the captive (and propagandized) audience. They are being super kind as to at least make it entertaining for us.

[fokinsean]

Yeah I've gotten a little wrapped up as well looking into all of this mounting tension between the US and Russia. Protip, stay away from /r/the_donald.

My personal opinion is that it is mostly political and I think (hope) that what is happening in Syria won't escalate to direct conflict between the US and Russia.

I stumbled across this little blog article the other day and it helped relieve some of my anxieties.

https://cluborlov.blogspot.com/2016/10/oopsa-world-war.html

[AmrEldib]

I don't actually think this will lead to open conflict. My comment at the end was just saying that this is what a world war would probably look like now, and that this back and forth might continue for a while. I'd like to hear from an expert as well, rather than rely on piecing news items together.

[heurist]

I'm not worried about open conflict, I'm worried that the internet will become a battlefield and our businesses will be caught in the crossfire.

[matwood]

> - Russia's only air craft carrier is trespassing through UK waters to get to Syria in a show of force that doesn't really add anything to their military capabilities there.

I read they were passing in international waters. Is that not the case? It's clearly a show of force, but no need for the hyperbole if it is not true.

[67726e]

Foreign vessels are allowed to transit through another nations waters. This happens regularly and is not in any way noteworthy.

[matwood]

Thanks for the info. What was noteworthy to me is that their aircraft carrier is running on diesel and is clearly something from the 80s.