What just happened to Stack Overflow?

Question

Stack Overflow was down for a long time here, probably about an hour.

What was the cause?

I wonder if this map is depicting this attack: digitalattackmap.com — Chris Laplante, Feb 16, 2014 at 20:13
Wow.... A few minutes without SO made me clear up my desk and listen to some music I wanted long ago... I think I am over the line, I just don't know which line that is... — ppeterka, Feb 16, 2014 at 20:15
I wonder who would launch a DDOS on SE? Somebody who got banned and wanted revenge? :P — Mysticial, Feb 16, 2014 at 20:15
@Mystical: Whoever did it, I'm sure at one point in their development of the DDOS tool they got advice from SE. (Assuming the people who launched it developed the tool, which is probably unlikely...) — Chris Laplante, Feb 16, 2014 at 20:17
@Mysticial well, maybe someone's "print a triangle of stars in Java" homework question might have been downvoted beyond recognition in the first 3 seconds... — ppeterka, Feb 16, 2014 at 20:17
All dns records for SE sites have to be updated, that takes a while — rene, Feb 16, 2014 at 20:29
Looks like @rene is correct. Added 198.252.206.140 dba.stackexchange.com to my hosts file and can now access that site. — Martin Smith, Feb 16, 2014 at 20:35

Ahmad · Accepted Answer · 2014-02-16 20:05:22Z

55

The StackStatus twitter account says this:

Our network provider is experiencing a bit of increased traffic. We and they are investigating.

We have partially mitigated a DDoS attack against our network. We are continuing to watch traffic.

answered Feb 16, 2014 at 20:05

Ahmad

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Community · Accepted Answer · 2017-03-20 10:30:45Z

65

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CommunityBot

1

answered Feb 16, 2014 at 21:41

Manishearth

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