Skeptic Geek

EveryDNS.net, which provided DNS services to the wikileaks.org domain has terminated them at 10 PM EST, December 2, 2010, citing threats to the stability of their infrastructure.

Update: Wikileaks has tweeted that it has moved to Switzerland:

Indeed, you can now access it at http://wikileaks.ch which points to http://213.251.145.96/

A Who.is lookup for wikileaks.ch reveals that though the domain may be registered in Switzerland, the server is located in Stockholm, Sweden:

In a statement posted on their website, EveryDNS.net stated:

EveryDNS.net provided domain name system (DNS) services to the wikileaks.org domain name until 10PM EST, December 2, 2010, when such services were terminated. As with other users of the EveryDNS.net network, this service was provided for free. The termination of services was effected pursuant to, and in accordance with, the EveryDNS.net Acceptable Use Policy.

More specifically, the services were terminated for violation of the provision which states that "Member shall not interfere with another Member’s use and enjoyment of the Service or another entity’s use and enjoyment of similar services." The interference at issues arises from the fact that wikileaks.org has become the target of multiple distributed denial of service (DDOS) attacks. These attacks have, and future attacks would, threaten the stability of the EveryDNS.net infrastructure, which enables access to almost 500,000 other websites.

Thus, last night, at approximately 10PM EST, December 1, 2010 a 24 hour termination notification email was sent to the email address associated with the wikileaks.org account. In addition to this email, notices were sent to Wikileaks via Twitter and the chat function available through the wikileaks.org website. Any downtime of the wikileaks.org website has resulted from its failure to use another hosted DNS service provider.

Update: EveryDNS has further clarified their position, with another statement at 11 AM EST:

First, let’s be clear, this is a difficult issue to deal with and there are opinions on all sides. Second, EveryDNS.net, the world’s largest free managed DNS provider, is not taking a position on the content hosted on the wikileaks.org or wikileaks.ch website, it is following established policies so as not to put any one EveryDNS.net user’s interests ahead of any others. Lastly, regardless of what people say about the actions of EveryDNS.net, we know this much is true – we believe in our New Hampshire state motto, Live Free or Die.

With that said:

EveryDNS.net is a free community-based service.

EveryDNS.net does not host content. The Domain Name System (DNS) service routes Internet traffic from domain names to IP addresses.

EveryDNS.net, a provider of free managed DNS services, supports nearly 500,000 websites worldwide.

At 10PM EST, on Wednesday December 1, 2010 a 24-hour termination notification email was sent to the email address associated with the wikileaks.org account. In addition to this email, notices were sent to Wikileaks via Twitter and the chat function available through the wikileaks.org website.

Any downtime of the wikileaks.org website has resulted from its failure to, with plentiful advance notice, use another DNS solution.

Yesterday, pursuant to the EveryDNS.net Acceptable Use Policy the primary DNS hosted domains were disabled. Today, also in accordance with the EveryDNS.net Acceptable Use Policy, the secondary DNS hosted domains, including wikileaks.ch, were disabled.

EveryDNS.net is not taking a position on the content hosted on the wikileaks.org or wikileaks.ch website, it is following established policies. No one EveryDNS.net user has the right to put at risk, yesterday, today or tomorrow, the service that hundreds of thousands of other websites depend on.

Their Twitter account also posted the following tweet:

Earlier, Wikileaks confirmed on Twitter:

The troubles continue for Wikileaks, which was booted from Amazon Web Services. Senator Lieberman has also introduced a legislation that would make it a federal crime for anyone to publish the name of a U.S. intelligence source.

For non-technical folks, DNS (Domain Name System) is the protocol used to translate friendly names on the Internet (wikileaks.org) to their numeric IP addresses. This means that Wikileaks still continues to own the domain “wikileaks.org”, but it’s not accessible through that name on the Internet.

Here is a comprehensive list of Wikileaks mirrors: http://wikileaks.info/ Thanks, Lidija Davis!