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Attention Metal Sludge friends: Monday August 23rd, 2004

On Friday, August 20th, at approximately 12:35 p.m. Eastern Time, Metal Sludge’s server stopped responding to requests during the flow of otherwise normal Internet traffic, becoming inaccessible for the better part of the past 3 ½ days. :(

Preliminary findings indicate that Metal Sludge’s server has been (likely) a victim of what is known as a Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack. A DDoS attack is a hacker tactic in which a Web site's servers are bombarded with fake packets of requests for information. When the server responds, the attackers' system steps up the barrage by sending more requests. The affected Web site’s server struggles to keep up with the increasingly overwhelming number of requests, which ultimately crashes the system. It’s essentially Cyber Terrorism. DDoS attacks have been used to temporarily shut down the Web sites of CNN, Yahoo, eBay, Amazon.com, Datek, Citibank, MTV, Al Jazeera, Microsoft, the RIAA, and, now, Metal Sludge. :|

Not only did this alleged attack affect our site, but it also affected our entire ISP, our ISP’s ISP, and all of their collective clients. Needless to say, there are a lot of very pissed-off people. The
collective amount of damages endured by all afflicted parties is
estimated into the tens of thousands, effectively fast-tracking this incident to the attention of Cybercrime divisions within various local and federal law enforcement agencies.

Whoever ordered and executed such an attack, for some reason, really doesn’t want anyone going to Metal Sludge. Some ‘bad apple’ wants to spoil it for the whole bunch. We’re not sure who would have conceived and carried out such a blatant, wanton act of malevolence, but please be aware that we have been fully cooperating with law enforcement agents, supplying them with any and all information per their request, including the names and contact information for persons who may have had a reason to conduct such an attack on our servers. We guess it's safe to say that these person(s) should be on notice that their EVERY Internet/Computer related move could likely be under the surveilance of some very serious 'next level' people. ;)

At present, there are additional safeguards beyond normal security measures being implemented by our ISP, designed to help thwart a repeated attack, so we hope that such an unfortunate incident will not occur in the future. We apologize to our fans, friends, guests, partners and clients for the downtime.

We will soon be returning to your regularly scheduled Sludge.

In other words, in Sludge terms the above is defined as follows: Some dumb asses might be in a lot more shit than they could of ever dreamed of. In addition, Jani Lane is NOT back in Warrant (yet), Vince Neil is not back in shape (yet), Axl Rose looks more like Joan Rivers son - than the singer for Guns n' Roses, and Metal Skool rools!

Metal Sludge flatlined, but just like Nikki Sixx, we'll be coming back to kick your fuckin' asses even harder!

Metal Sludge is more than a Web site… it’s a way of life. Get used to it.

The globally aware Staff at Metal Sludge.

For all those who need an Internet fix, please support our friends while we re-boot!

http://www.xm.com/ http://www.knac.com/ http://www.melodicrock.com/
http://www.bravewords.com/ http://www.thetourbus.com/
http://www.tuffcds.com
http://www.metal-exiles.com/ http://www.rockdetector.com
http://www.mulletsgalore.com/ http://www.sherryglobman.com
http://www.rockconfidential.com/ [url]

http://aorheaven.com/
http://www.eddietrunk.com/ http://www.blabbermouth.net/
http://www.theatomicpunks.com http://www.roadie.net/
http://www.rock-n-radio.com/ http://www.ccbanana.com/
http://www.lilgnr.com/ http://michaelthomas19.com/

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