Comments on: CIA website down

By: That_Anonymous_Coward

That_Anonymous_Coward — Sat, 11 Feb 2012 11:11:00 +0000

A public facing website of no real consequence went down…
Cue pundits demanding we stop this Cyber Armageddon by getting rid of all computing devices and instead rely on technology the **AA’s control and understand.

By: Cowicide

Cowicide — Sat, 11 Feb 2012 01:05:00 +0000

What's this dev.boingboing.net thing?

By: Benton Ray

Benton Ray — Sat, 11 Feb 2012 00:57:00 +0000

I don’t know that it would be “briefly” in this case!

By: Antinous / Moderator

Antinous / Moderator — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 22:58:00 +0000

Actually, Disqus has taken on the role of Comment Loss Services. It was in the spam bin.

By: Chicago_SC

Chicago_SC — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 22:53:00 +0000

It was Johnny and he was…

JUST KIDDING.

By: Pope Ratzo

Pope Ratzo — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 22:20:00 +0000

They just want you to THINK that the website is down.

You’re playing right into their hands!

By: Guest

Guest — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 22:06:00 +0000

BB ate my comment, probably because the block of WHOIS text looked like spam or something…

In short: cia.gov isn’t really “on” the CIA’s network. It is hosted by AOL Network Services (rebranded ANS Communications at some point) and has been ever since the CIA established a public-facing website back in the AOL days.

If you have never taken a look at the CIA World Factbook, I assure you it is a fascinating read. The factbook is very accurate and up-to-date, so much so that it was formerly considered “sensitive but unclassified” and wasn’t on their public website.

By: Quiche de Resistance

Quiche de Resistance — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 22:05:00 +0000

“LOL”
-NSA

By: Guest

Guest — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 21:58:00 +0000

$ nslookup cia.gov
Server: 128.63.58.12
Address: 128.63.58.12#53

Non-authoritative answer:
Name: cia.gov
Address: 198.81.129.107

$ whois 198.81.129.107

NetRange:       198.81.128.0 - 198.81.191.255
CIDR:           198.81.128.0/18
OriginAS:
NetName:        OIT-BLK1
NetHandle:      NET-198-81-128-0-1
Parent:         NET-198-80-0-0-1
NetType:        Reassigned
RegDate:        1997-02-11
Updated:        1998-03-30
Ref:            http://whois.arin.net/rest/net/NET-198-81-128-0-1

OrgName:        Central Intelligence Agency
OrgId:          CIA-1
Address:        GCS, ND1
City:           Washington
StateProv:      DC
PostalCode:     20505
Country:        US
RegDate:        1992-07-22
Updated:        2011-09-24
Ref:            http://whois.arin.net/rest/org/CIA-1

NetRange:       198.80.0.0 - 198.81.255.255
CIDR:           198.80.0.0/15
OriginAS:
NetName:        BLK198-15-ANS
NetHandle:      NET-198-80-0-0-1
Parent:         NET-198-0-0-0-0
NetType:        Direct Allocation
RegDate:        1993-03-26
Updated:        2002-10-10
Ref:            http://whois.arin.net/rest/net/NET-198-80-0-0-1

OrgName:        ANS Communications, Inc
OrgId:          ANS
Address:        22001 Loudoun County Parkway
City:           Ashburn
StateProv:      VA
PostalCode:     20147
Country:        US
RegDate:        1991-07-12
Updated:        2009-12-07
Ref:            http://whois.arin.net/rest/org/ANS

cia.gov is nowhere close to the CIA’s networks. It is in fact hosted by AOL Network Services (aka ANS Communications Inc., and has been since the CIA put up a public-facing website back when AOL was the dominant ISP.)

By: abulafia

abulafia — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 21:25:00 +0000

Probably refreshing their Spring line of spies…

By: Noctilucent Studios

Noctilucent Studios — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 21:22:00 +0000

American Spring

By: relawson

relawson — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 21:18:00 +0000

Step one: get BoingBoing to post a story about website X being down.
Step two: wait…

;)

By: kaellinn18

kaellinn18 — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 21:12:00 +0000

Yay, I won an internet race!

By: Rob

Rob — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 21:08:00 +0000

Nuts. Beat me by about 5 seconds.

By: kaellinn18

kaellinn18 — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 21:07:00 +0000

http://xkcd.com/932/