Coding Website GitHub Hit With Cyberattack

A U.S. coding website has been crippled by a distributed denial of service -- also known as DDoS -- that began Thursday, the Wall Street Journal reported. It’s believed the attack on the GitHub Inc. website was launched by China to eliminate content deemed objectionable by its censors.

For those who might not know, GitHub Inc. helps large technology firms create software and considers itself the world’s largest code host, Reuters reported Sunday. The DDoS attack is one of the most common on the Internet. It happens when a website is flooded with so much traffic it crashes.

“We are currently experiencing the largest DDoS attack in GitHub.com's history,” the website wrote on its blog Friday. “Based on reports we've received, we believe the intent of this attack is to convince us to remove a specific class of content. We are completely focused on mitigating this attack. Our top priority is making sure GitHub.com is available to all our users while deflecting malicious traffic.”

As of 8:38 p.m. EDT, GitHub Inc. tweeted to its 20,900 followers the cyberattack was still underway. “All systems reporting at 100%. Attack traffic continues, so we remain on high alert,” the tweet read. The company has continued to post updates to its Twitter account since the attack began. “87 hours in, our mitigation is deflecting most attack traffic. We're aware of intermittent issues and continue to adapt our response,” GitHub Inc. said in a different update.

China has not taken responsibility or the attack . The Journal said when it reached out to the Cyberspace Administration of China Sunday, the agency did not provide a comment.

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