Having wowed us with its neat, interactive world map of DDoS attacks, Google says it is expanding its DDoS mitigation to help protect free expression online.
Google’s Project Shield, which was announced at the Google Ideas conference in New York, is said to offer free protection against botnet-fueled distributed denial-of-service attacks, and has been helping some at-risk sites stay online for months.
Websites currently benefiting from Project Shield’s umbrella include Balatarin (a Persian-language political website), and Aymta (a Syrian site offering early warning of SCUD missile attacks).
Here is the promotional video that Google has released to officially announce the service:
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Although Google doesn’t guarantee that your site will be protected against DDoS attacks if it uses the “Project Shield” service, the folks filmed in the video certainly seem pretty pleased with the service that they are receiving.
Clearly anything which allows individuals and small organisations to better protect their sites from a DDOS attack by serving their content through Google’s own infrastructure instead is going to be welcomed by proponents of free speech – and a thorn in the side for the attackers who wish to silence them.
To find out more, or to join the next round of what Google calls its “trusted testers”, visit the Project Shield website.
The company says that organisations with websites serving media, elections and human rights related content are invited to apply.
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