Yesterday, on the morning of January 25, 2025, alarming news came from the editorial team that the eestieest.com servers were down, and Editor-in-Chief Mihkel Johannes Paimla was unable to access the platform to create news content. Personally, I use a MacBook, and even the Safari browser did not allow access to the site, displaying an error message.
Trying the Brave browser, the news site opened without any issues. Instantly, I suspected that our domain had been blocked by mainstream browsers. Based on this suspicion, I immediately shared a public post:
Announcement!
The news portal eestieest.com is currently blocked in mainstream internet browsers. I recommend everyone consider using the alternative browser Brave. Brave helps bypass restrictions and allows access to pages that might otherwise be blocked.
Advantages of Brave:
- Focuses on privacy and security.
- Automatically blocks ads and tracking cookies.
- Enables access to content that may be restricted in other browsers.
Download Brave and enjoy unrestricted internet!
SHARE!
Following the announcement, people began responding on Facebook, saying they were still able to access the site using other internet browsers. It then became clear that the issue was specifically related to blocked access via Safari and the WordPress admin section.
Since there is a 7-hour time difference with the US, Mike arrived at our office by midday and informed us that we were under attack by hackers. The hackers were using a DDoS attack, overwhelming our server with massive traffic to overload it and disrupt access.
Luckily, Mike Calamus was already familiar with the issue, as our platform had previously been attacked during the 2023 Riigikogu elections. In response, Mike had no choice but to change the server and update the IP address, as attackers typically target specific IP addresses with repeated requests to overload the system.
Mike immediately started tracing the source of the attack to identify who was behind it. He successfully uncovered the companies associated with the IP addresses used by the attackers.
Mike Calamus’ Facebook Post:
Today, our eestieest.com is down due to ongoing DDoS attacks. The last time we faced such an issue was during the 2023 Riigikogu elections.
The attack report revealed an interesting company name, STARK, which strongly hints at connections to the notorious Eastern Transit scandal. Upon closer investigation, it turned out that the company has recently ceased operations.
I spent six continuous hours migrating the entire news portal to a new server. This step was necessary to protect the platform from further attacks. As a result, there was a temporary delay in news delivery.
/Mario Maripuu, Editor and Host/
