The BBC’s websites were brought down earlier today by a huge distribution denial of service (DDoS) attack, forcing BBC.co.uk offline.
The attack was staged by an unknown source on Thursday morning, with the BBC’s servers being overloaded with false hits until it was rendered inaccessible. With it being the seventh largest website in the UK according to Alexa rankings, this is one of the largest DDoS attacks in the region’s history, though it has since been brought back online.
The attack prompted a message reading ‘Error 500 – Internal Error’ any time a user tried to access a webpage on one of the broadcaster’s websites, with a statement from the BBC’s Press Office reading: “The BBC website is now back up and operating normally. We apologise for any inconvenience you may have experienced.”
After being taken offline at 7am, the site was finally operating as usual at 10.30am. The BBC iPlayer streaming service was also brought down during this time period, along with the iPlayer Radio app.
It is unknown whether this DDoS attack was carried out by an individual or by a group, nor whether the BBC is launching an investigation into who orchestrated it.
