Deflect is a

DDoS mitigation DDoS mitigation is a set of network management techniques and/or tools, for resisting or mitigating the impact of distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks on networks attached to the Internet, by protecting the target, and relay networks. DD ...

and website security service by

eQualitie eQualitie is a Canadian digital security organisation focused on the development and distribution of free, open-source software, services and security training to civil society, NGO's, investigative journalists and independent media to protect ...

, a Canadian social enterprise developing open and reusable systems with a focus on privacy, resilience and

self-determination The right of a people to self-determination is a cardinal principle in modern international law (commonly regarded as a ''jus cogens'' rule), binding, as such, on the United Nations as authoritative interpretation of the Charter's norms. It stat ...

, to protect and promote human rights and

press freedom Freedom of the press or freedom of the media is the fundamental principle that communication and expression through various media, including printed and electronic media, especially published materials, should be considered a right to be exerci ...

online.

History

Deflect was founded by digital security expert and trainer Dmitri Vitaliev and Canadian internet entrepreneur David Mason in 2011. The Deflect project predates similar initiatives by Google's

Project Shield Project Shield is an anti-distributed-denial-of-service (anti-DDoS) service that is offered by Jigsaw, a subsidiary of Google Google LLC () is an American Multinational corporation, multinational technology company focusing on Search Eng ...

and Cloudflare's

Project Galileo Project Galileo is an educational astronomy project, based at Clifton College in Bristol, in the United Kingdom. History Project Galileo started in December 2000, as a result of a telescope being donated to a Bristol school, with the overall ai ...

. The initiative was created in response to an influential report by the Berkman Center for Internet & Society which highlighted the prevalence of DDoS as a means of political repression and censorship against independent media and human rights groups around the world, and recommended practical methods to protect websites from future incidents. The company claims to reach approximately 2% of the population connected to the Internet on an annual basis Deflect offers free services to many civil society organizations and commercial plans for small business and enterprise. In 2016, the Deflect team released its first investigative report into attacks against a Ukrainian independent media website. ""On the 2nd of February, the Kotsubynske website published an article from a meeting of the regional administrative council where it stated that members of the political party 'New Faces' were interfering with and trying to sabotage the council's work on stopping deforestation. Attacks against the website begin thereafter." Also in 2016, ''CBC'' noted that Deflect thwarted

DDoS attacks In computing, a denial-of-service attack (DoS attack) is a cyber-attack in which the perpetrator seeks to make a machine or network resource unavailable to its intended users by temporarily or indefinitely disrupting services of a host connect ...

for Black Lives Matter. Investigations led by the Deflect team to discover the methods and provenance of over a hundred separate incidents against the Black Lives Matter website, were noted in The Verge, Ars Technica and BoingBoing. In 2019, the Deflect team discovered a persistent cyber offensive campaign against Uzbek human rights activists, leading to a more detailed study by

Amnesty International Amnesty International (also referred to as Amnesty or AI) is an international non-governmental organization focused on human rights, with its headquarters in the United Kingdom. The organization says it has more than ten million members and sup ...

. Other instances of intervention for which Deflect has received recognition for include the

Gamergate Gamergate may refer to: * Gamergate (ant), a worker ant that can store sperm and reproduce sexually * Gamergate (harassment campaign), targeting women in the video game industry * Lt. Gamergate, a character in the ''Adventure Time'' episode " Den ...

, the

2012 Rakhine State riots The 2012 Rakhine State riots were a series of conflicts primarily between ethnic Rakhine Buddhists and Rohingya Muslims in northern Rakhine State, Myanmar, though by October Muslims of all ethnicities had begun to be targeted. The riots start ...

, the

2013 Iranian presidential election Presidential elections were held in Iran on 14 June 2013. Hassan Rouhani won with a landslide victory, elected in the first round of voting with 50.71% of the vote.

and the

FIFA corruption conspiracy In 2015, United States Attorney, United States federal prosecutors disclosed cases of corruption by officials and associates connected with the Fédération internationale de Football Association (FIFA), the governing body of association footbal ...

. In 2017, Scott Neigh, host of podcast ''Talking Radical Radio'', spoke with founder Dmitri Vitaliev about how Deflect.ca defends social movements against digital threats. By 2020, the ''Washington Post'' reported that Deflect.ca was protecting over 500 vulnerable civil society organizations.

References

External links

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{Dead link, date=March 2023 , bot=InternetArchiveBot , fix-attempted=yes Computer security companies Internet security DDoS mitigation companies Reverse proxy Social enterprises

History

See also

References

External links