Cyber attacks knock Twitter and Spotify offline

Services have been restored after Twitter and Spotify were hit by cyber attacks. Picture: iStock

A cyber attack that left Twitter and Spotify among a host of websites knocked offline has been resolved, the subject of the attack has claimed.

A distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack - when a website is flooded with traffic until it can no longer support it and is forced offline - had targeted domain name system provider Dyn, which in turn disrupted service to many of its customers, which also included SoundCloud, Airbnb and Reddit.

The incident left many users cut off from a range of services, however Dyn has now tweeted that “services have been restored to normal” after around an hour of disruption.

The attack was first reported on website Hacker News, which named social media giant Twitter and music service Spotify among a list of “sites down”, with most of those affected based in the US.

However, some in the UK also reported issues accessing their Twitter and Spotify accounts.

Security experts labelled the attack a “nuisance” but warned the style of attack can sometimes be used as a diversion from other activity.

Mark James, from cyber security firm ESET, said: “DDoS seems to be more widely used these days to cause disruption and nuisance.

“DDoS, of course, may not only be used to make a statement or bring voice to your protests, it may and has on many occasions been used as a smokescreen to cover other nefarious purposes, which may include data theft or malware infection.

“We all need our daily fix of the digital programs that are so intertwined into our daily lives and when those services are down we tend to get a little edgy.”

No-one has claimed responsibility for the attack.

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