I severely doubt this line of thought.. but they didn't make any friends with their "switch from X to us" campaign, and it only takes one bruised ego with a lack of ethics to stir up trouble.

That said, if it's like most other DDOS attacks I've seen reported, the target is probably a user of the service with Posterous merely being unlucky enough to host a particular site someone doesn't like. I vaguely recall another platform got DDOSed recently due to some Israel vs Iran type cyberwar.

Must be something that they really dislike.

Never underestimate the power of lulz when trying to understand a DDoS.

someone probably has an issue w/ the blog/content of someone who is using posterous rather than posterous themselves.

That's my guess as well.

Weebly said (I think in their YC Founders at Work interview) that they get multiple DDoSes a day, aimed not at them but at sites they host. Now they have good enough systems in place to deal with it that they said they often just don't notice.

I guess when you host enough people's content, it's only a matter of time before someone wants to DoS something you're hosting.

Maybe, and take it with a grain of salt, some people got infuriated by their recent switch to posterous campaign. I know this may be a very remote option, but in my opinion it's very possible.

"A grain of salt" is the expression.

Thank you

The botnet controller could be extorting websites directly... wire $5000 to my paypal account or your website will go down. Anyone from Posterous care to confirm/deny in this case?

This is very common with online gaming (== gambling) sites, and payment systems; anything where there is obviously money being processed.

Do you have any evidence that this has ever been done in the past?

It's not inconceivable, but it seems like a huge leap.

Google seems to provide plenty of examples. Even if it didn't, I don't understand why you see this extortion as a stretch.

It's not uncommon. There was an article a long time ago telling the story of a DDOS attack on a gambling website, and how a guy who was a philosophy major (iirc) figured out how to beat it, and then formed a company providing the same service. Forgot the url/title/etc, but it was good. Plenty more available with a search.

Could this have anything to do with Posterous' risqué post claiming superiority over Tumblr?

http://www.blogherald.com/2010/06/24/posterous-slanders-tumb...

Who knew what the attackers are thinking. Not too long ago DnsMadeEasy was DDoS from Korea.

Maybe there's financial incentives?