Bonum Certa Men Certa

Disruption to Site's Service

Summary: A technical note about why Techrights has not been publishing many articles recently

WE HAVE A LOT to publish (drowning in material). We have a lot to publish specifically about the EPO, but I am home-bound due to the site being overloaded with crap traffic (some things cannot be automated and must be done manually in order to keep the site available). A series we are trying to publish (see part one and its addendum) is well overdue, but as I stated a couple of nights ago, it is difficult to even keep the site online (since just over a week ago when the Kongstad series had hit the Danish press). The site is having severe issues whenever I go to sleep and I have had to cancel many things, making a lot of personal sacrifices for this. I slept only 2 hours 2 nights ago.



We are, sooner or later, going to publish all that we intended to publish. All this mess only makes me ever more eager to get it out of the way (or put it out in the open).

Some people ask us about the issues. One message we received a few hours ago said: "I notice that there are a lot of 503 messages with Varnish at Techrights lately. I suppose that is because of a DDoS of the backend server or just of key daemons (esp MySQL). The DDoS is usually an indication that you are on the right track and that the recent posts are effective and timely."

As of today, for example, "European Patent Office" (e.g. 145.64.134.245) is hammering Techrights (IPs are being banned by our defenses, but it's not enough). As we stated here before, we are not sure if it's their filtering equipment that does this (we explained the technical reasons it might be so). We're managing to keep Techrights afloat only by banning lots of IP addresses and it's usually not enough. My wife and I monitor the server and intervene almost 24/7. I canceled the gym today.

Among the IP addresses banned today for excessive access (requests) we also have 155.201.34.7, which belongs to:

NetRange: 155.201.0.0 - 155.201.255.255 CIDR: 155.201.0.0/16 NetName: PRWATERHOUSE NetHandle: NET-155-201-0-0-1 Parent: NET155 (NET-155-0-0-0-0) NetType: Direct Assignment OriginAS: Organization: PriceWaterhouseCoopers, LLP (PRICEW-16) RegDate: 1991-11-22 Updated: 2012-02-24 Ref: https://whois.arin.net/rest/net/NET-155-201-0-0-1


"PriceWaterhouseCoopers" is Battistelli's liars for hire (the so-called 'social' 'study'). They are still hammering the site today, for the second day in a row in fact. Whether it's abuse or abusive traffic (or excessive requests that may be related to this article which tarnishes their image) we leave others to decide on. “PricewaterhouseCoopers” was automatically banned from the site for traffic abuse, but the addresses keep changing and our system automatically bans them.

We have had yet another IP address auto-banned for traffic floods that render the site unaccessible. Here is the report (notice the number of attempts, in a short period of time):

The IP 155.201.34.7 has just been banned by Fail2Ban after 216 attempts against VARNISH.

&showARIN=false&showNonArinTopLevelNet=false&ext=netref2 #

NetRange: 155.201.0.0 - 155.201.255.255 CIDR: 155.201.0.0/16 NetName: PRWATERHOUSE NetHandle: NET-155-201-0-0-1 Parent: NET155 (NET-155-0-0-0-0) NetType: Direct Assignment OriginAS: Organization: PriceWaterhouseCoopers, LLP (PRICEW-16) RegDate: 1991-11-22 Updated: 2012-02-24 Ref: https://whois.arin.net/rest/net/NET-155-201-0-0-1


Also:

The IP 164.143.240.34 has just been banned by Fail2Ban after 183 attempts against VARNISH.

person: DCS Gov address: PricewaterhouseCoopers UK address: 161 Marsh Wall address: Docklands address: London address: E14 9SQ address: United Kingdom phone: +44 207 583 5000 fax-no: +44 207 212 2921 nic-hdl: DCS17-RIPE mnt-by: AS1849-MNT created: 2005-09-09T14:46:07Z last-modified: 2005-09-09T14:46:07Z source: RIPE # Filtere


I have to go to work now, but when I finish I intend to work hard (well into the weekend), with the goal is releasing many EPO articles (if the state of the site/server permits). Stay tuned and be sympathetic not to Battistelli and his goons but to those trying hard -- at a great personal cost (and pro bono) -- to expose them.

Recent Techrights' Posts

What LibreOffice and TDF Get Right About Document Formats (and What They Get Wrong)
OOXML is a phantom - it is something nobody implements, not even Microsoft!
Cannot Speak About IBM Wrongdoing or Jobs Being Sent Overseas (Lower Salaries)
IBM has long attacked the media, the whistleblowers, and even online forums
European Patent Office (EPO) Series: The CIA-Funded Centre-Left in Portugal
In the political turmoil which followed the fall of the old regime, the communists seemed to be acquiring a dominant position and there was a very real risk that Portugal could end up aligned with the Eastern Bloc if they were not stopped
Yesterday Afternoon The Register MS Published a Fake Article That Says "AI" 31 Times Because It Got Paid to Do This
What will happen when all those loans for slop (Ponzi scheme) stop and companies' marketing budgets - which include media bribes for hype campaigns - are no more?
Extraordinary General Meeting of Staff Union of the European Patent Office Ahead of Intensifying Strikes
We will, in the meantime, run a series about EPO corruption, which is now connected to corruption in Portugal and to corruption inside the EU
 
Microsoft Azure Shrinking With More Mass Layoffs
"Reports suggest the layoffs will impact close to 200 out of 400 workers, who are set to cease employment at Azure on July 6"
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, June 09, 2026
IRC logs for Tuesday, June 09, 2026
European Patent Office (EPO) Series: The Centre-Right "Social Democratic Party" in Portugal
Quite an achievement for a former Maoist radical and aspiring champion of the Portuguese proletariat to be invited to join Goldman Sachs
SLAPP Censorship - Part 102 Out of 200: Maybe One Day Whistleblowers From Brett Wilson LLP Will Tell Us What Really Happened
Maybe one day some former staff of Brett Wilson LLP will also approach us to blow the whistle
Gemini Links 09/06/2026: "The Mist of the Lands Between", Board Game Concept
Links for the day
2026: The Year Slop Companies "Made an Exit" (Threw in the Towel Over to Wall Street)
Remember 2026 as the year two major slop companies (which we won't name) sought an IPO
Links 09/06/2026: NSO Group still cracking, "FOI tribunal throws out £14k costs claim against journalist Barnie Choudhury"
Links for the day
Links 09/06/2026: "Smartphones Broke Dating" and "EU Open Source Strategy"
Links for the day
This Coming Friday
Richard Stallman (RMS)
Several Slopfarms That Target "Linux" Seem to Have Died
Or perished severely
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Monday, June 08, 2026
IRC logs for Monday, June 08, 2026
Gemini Links 09/06/2026: Tanana River, Cassette Beasts, and Emacs
Links for the day
IBM's Quantum Bubble Already Deflating
Shares down over $55 in a few days
European Patent Office (EPO) Series: The Brotherhood of São Bento
The Palácio São Bento – or São Bento Palace – is the seat of the Portuguese National Assembly in Lisbon
SLAPP Censorship - Part 101 Out of 200: Women Come to Realise They Don't Wish to Participate in Attacking Vulnerable Women
It relates to another topic that we shall be covering in the coming weeks
Links 08/06/2026: Proprietary Loaded With Security Holes, Armenia Defies Russia
Links for the day
Gemini Links 08/06/2026: NetHack 5.0.0 and Slop as Cannibalism
Links for the day
Links 08/06/2026: "Rising Emissions, Depleting Water" Due to the Pyramid Scheme of Slop; "Canada Needs to Rebuild Public Telecoms"
Links for the day
Brett Wilson LLP Reported to Police for Trying to Throw Large Parcel Into Our Home
This morning the campaign of intimidation...
GAFAM Bots Are Not "Good Bots"
There's nothing "Good" about Google
Links 08/06/2026: Criticism of Microsoft Trying to Criminalise Pointing Out Bug Doors, TikTok Now "Climate-Denying Social Media App"
Links for the day
Slop Has no ROI, an Economy Built on False Assumptions of Slop is Doomed
we're all going to suffer from this Ponzi scheme
The Cyber Show Has "Exciting Guests Coming" and a Gemini Capsule
"Site development is ongoing but now settling into a more stable form"
GNU/Linux Measured at 10% in Liechtenstein This Month
it seems like statCounter wrongly classified some GNU/Linux clients as Mac clients and is now issuing a correction
Communicating With Freedom - Part III - Quibble Envisioned as a New and Easily Accessible Communications Platform Based on LibreJS
the FSF really needs to become more active if not proactive in promoting those sorts of things
Clownflare Says Majority of Web Traffic is Now Bots, But the Net is Another Story
Bots are to Clownflare what lawsuits are to lawyers
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Sunday, June 07, 2026
IRC logs for Sunday, June 07, 2026
The Strikes at the European Patent Office Planned to Carry on for the Entire Year, Maybe Future Years as Well
There's a cautionary tale somewhere
Number of Patent Grants Has Plunged 23% Amid Strikes at the European Patent Office, Today There Are More Strikes (Strike Participation at Over 3,000, More Than Doubled Since Winter)
There is a growing crisis at the European Patent Office
E.E.E. Still Ongoing, the War on Copyleft/GPL Enables That
It also imperils security.