Ello, the upstart social network that’s grown in massive popularity of the past week, is currently down. Whether for maintenance or more nefarious purposes, it isn’t outwardly explicit. According to its current status page, the site is investigating the cause but is leaning toward a possible denial of service (DDoS) attack.
The company started investigating the issue around 6am this morning. It has since been restored after 35 minutes down.
Ello has positioned itself as the anti-Facebook, a social media destination to put its users completely in an ad and data collection-free environment. And that promise appears to have been an attractive one for many.
Two days ago, 31,000 people were joined Ello per hour through its relatively lenient invite system. This explosive growth no doubt makes Ello an attractive target for would-be DDoS attackers — one of the many symptoms of running any type of successful website. A report over the summer indicated that DDoS attacks are only growing in number with 2014 being a record year and urged companies to take more and more security measures to stay safe.
According to the status page, the site successfully fended of DDoS attackers.
