Three ages of publicity optimization

I like to think of corporate attempts to “streamline” cyberspace and use it to their own advantage as having three distinct ages. The Age of Defensive Publicity Optimization began when corporations developed an addiction to Search Engine Optimization (SEO) to leverage the power of Google and trick the engine into positioning their products more favorably in its results. There was only one problem: when everyone is doing it, SEO makes little sense. Think mutual assured destruction with AdWords instead of nuclear weapons…

Then came the Age of Offensive Publicity Optimization; the same corporations began turning to paid services like ComplaintRemover, which offer to “optimize” negative blog posts and comments about the said company or its brand by pushing them further down in the Google search hierarcy and essentially hiding them from public view. This seemed like an ideal way to defuse the growing power of consumer watchdogs like The Consumerist.

Today we may be entering the age of Zero Tolerance Publicity Optimization, as companies are turning to cyber-attacks – most specifically, to distributed denial-of-service (DDOS) attacks – to silence their critics.

The most recent example of such practices comes from the community of satellite enthusiasts in the UK – these are the folks who exchange opinions on the best (and worst) satellite equipment, share tips on tuning, etc. As TechWatch, one of the leading sources of news in this field, reports, in the last few weeks alone DDOS attacks hit several satellite-related sites. Most curiously, the satellite industry, which stands to benefit most if the negative reviews of its products were to disappear, might be behind the attacks

Satellites.co.uk, alsat.co.uk, and satpimps.com are other major satellite forums that were reported to have been attacked over March, as well as smaller boards such as sat-haven, and denktenk.com.

When Techwatch was first attacked by repeated DDoS floods in February, messages posted to the forums from anonymous proxies suggested that extortion was the primary motivation.

However, there have been no such demands with the more recent wave of attacks over March.

This and the fact that it appears to be satellite forums specifically targeted has led some to suggest that one or more companies within the satellite industry itself may be responsible, even though DDoS attacks are considered a criminal offence in the UK.

I am spotting an interesting parallel in the world of medicine and education, where the Internet has made it possible for patients and students to exchange opinions about their doctors and college professors. Very few people in both professions love this development, but they can do very little about it. However, nothing – at least in theory – stops them from following the example set by the satellite manufacturers and launching DDOS attacks aimed at Web sites that they don’t like. This is one of the most serious consequences of the democratization of DDOS attacks that I have already blogged about here. If preserving critical speech on the Internet boils down to who can hire the most powerful botnet (or an anti-botnet solution), we are in big trouble…

Photo by timo_w2s/Flickr