MegaUpload Alternatives See Surge in Traffic After Shutdown

After losing access to their favorite file-hosting service last week, millions of former MegaUpload users have fled to the many alternatives available. Filefactory, Depositfiles and many of the other top cyberlockers have seen an unprecedented surge in traffic in recent days, showing that people haven’t stopped sharing even though the authorities have closed one of the main players in the business.

With a self-proclaimed 50 MILLION VISITERS A DAY & MORE THAN 150 MILLION ACCOUNTS, MegaUpload was one of the largest file-hosting sites on the Internet. Last week the feds shut down the popular site accusing its founder and six others of money-laundering and several copyright related crimes. The site’s former users, meanwhile, are left without their files and forced to find a new place to share. The big question is, where do these millions of people go now? The RIAA hopes that the people who used MegaUpload to share copyrighted music are turning to iTunes, but this is not the case for everyone. A look at the traffic of some of the MegaUpload alternatives shows that millions have simply migrated to other file-hosting sites. The graph below shows a sharp increase in traffic for four popular MegaUpload ‘replacements’ since last week. Based on data from various traffic measurement sites, Depositfiles, Uploaded.to, Hotfile and Rapidshare welcomed hundreds of thousands of extra visitors.

The example above is just the tip of the iceberg, as there are many other sites that experienced a surge in traffic including Filepost, Hulkshare, Netload.in, Uploading, zShare.net and many others. Whether the newcomers will remain on board has yet to be seen, but it is clear that millions of former MegaUpload users are migrating to other sites.As the cyberlocker landscape stands now, 4shared.com remains by far the largest site on the Internet. With an estimated 2.5 billion page views, 4Shared is more than twice the size of MegaUpload before it was shut down.

Needless to say, 4Shared is deeply concerned about the recent developments, but the company also told TorrentFreak that they have nothing to worry about themselves.“This case has a great negative impact on file storage services and the Internet overall,” a spokesman said, adding that “4shared has some of the most strict house rules among all other file storage services and there’s no need for any changes.” With many sites still in a state of shock, it might take a few weeks to see what the precise effect of the MegaUpload shutdown is. One thing is for sure though, many of MegaUpload’s former users haven’t given up downloading and sharing just yet.

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Google wishes Republic day with a Doodle

The latest Google Doodle marks the 63rd year of the Republic of India.

The Doodle depicts three elephants decked in finery, each with two children and a tricoloured umbrella on it's back, a reference to the Bravery Awardees who take part in the Republic Day parade. The Doodle is clickable, but does not play video or audio as previous clickable Doodles did. Instead, it leads to a search result page with news and information about Republic Day.

India's Republic Day commemorates the date that the Constitution Of India was enacted and became the document that governed the country. On January 26, 1950, the Indian Assembly's 308 members signed two handwritten copies of the new Constitution, an English and a Hindi version, and two days later the Constitution became the law. Drafted by a committee headed by B R Ambedkar, the Constitution replaced the Government Of India Act Of 1935 that had previously governed colonial India, and declared the country a sovereign, socialist, secular, democratic republic. 

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Anonymous Lashes Out in Wake of Megaupload Shutdown

In response to last week's shutdown of the site Megaupload, Anonymous has reportedly let fly with a series of cyberattacks against federal authorities and media companies. The attacks may include the participation of unwitting accomplices who click on a link and are tricked into taking part in the onslaught without their knowledge or consent.

The hacker group Anonymous has reportedly launched a series of attacks that shut down major websites in retaliation against the U.S. Department of Justice's actions against the site Megaupload. The attacks have been ongoing since Thursday, and various Web users who clicked on certain links may have been tricked into becoming accomplices.

The group reportedly began issuing distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks Thursday almost immediately after U.S. federal authorities announced they'd arrested several Megaupload executives on charges of racketeering, money laundering and copyright infringement. The government seized millions of dollars worth of assets and servers. 

Affected sites included the U.S. Department of Justice, the FBI, the U.S. Copyright Office, the Motion Picture Association of America, the Recording Industry Association of America and others.Th

e group also reportedly deleted much of the content found on CBS's website, CBS.com, though at press time the site appeared to be back in working order.

New Tactics

While Anonymous has been known to launch widespread attacks on various types of websites, it appears some of the attacks starting Thursday employed a different tactic -- one capable of harnessing the power of more Web users, in some cases without their knowledge or consent.

Usually, Anonymous supporters can download an application known as the "Low Orbit Ion Cannon" (LOIC), which, when activated, directs the computer to rapidly connect to the targeted websites. If enough users simultaneously try to connect at such a rapid rate, the site can crash due to server overload.

This time, though, Anonymous distributed a link that ran a Web version of that program on Twitter and in Anonymous chatrooms. Someone looking for more information on the group could have clicked on the link and unwittingly participated in the attack. This could be particularly troubling for the unwilling hackers, because DDoS attacks are illegal, and one's IP address is easily traced when using LOIC.

Seeking Attention

"Anonymous is a chaotic, loosely formed gang of rather young men looking for attention. Their targets are more or less random in that they intend to take on any cause that comes along, where they can make their presence known internationally," Avivah Litan, security analyst at Gartner (NYSE: IT), told the E-Commerce Times.

Individuals in the group normally try to remain anonymous, hence the name, though the collective often claims responsibility for its work. That often comes in the form of a tweet, blog post or YouTube video that sometimes includes hackers wearing their signature Guy Fawkes masks. Variations on its slogan, such as 'We are legion' and 'We do not forgive. We do not forget,' are often included.

READ MORE AT TECHNEWSWORLD

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