The Deflect team has been protecting Osservatorio Balcani Caucaso Transeuropa since 2013, when our website was subjected to repeated DDoS attacks, and hackers asked for the removal of “inconvenient” articles, threatening to completely obscure our service to our readers. Back then, the Deflect team promptly reacted to the threat, offering us their support, and ever since it has protected our site completely free of charge, in what we believe is an exemplary case of what “global social responsibility” can be. Thanks to their protection, during these last years we have been able to keep working without suffering new attacks. Deflect’s contribution to OBCT’s work may be invisible to our public, but is nonetheless fundamental: that’s why we want to publicly say thanks to the Deflect team for its daily commitment to defending the right to free expression online.
Roberto Antoniazzi, OpenWeb
On behalf of Osservatorio Balcani e Caucaso (OBC), the Italian nonprofit media organization I direct, I would like to express our gratitude and appreciation for the cyber-protection services you are currently offering us. During the past few months, OBC has been the target of persistent and intense DDoS attacks, most likely launched from abroad and aimed at intimidating us. Needless to say, these attacks provoked a great deal of preoccupation and endangered the work we have been carrying out for more than 13 years, but we could not compromise the quality and reliability of the news we publish and tried our best to protect ourselves. As a short-term emergency measure, we turned to a premium mitigation system that in no way could be economically sustainable in the medium and long-run for a small organization like ours. Very soon after, we were surprised to receive your offer and precious solidarity that has allowed us to start again focusing on our mission, that is to say the production of news, research, and training, and the dissemination of activities on the democratization processes of South-east Europe and the Caucasus. Your help made us feel less vulnerable and also part of a wider spectrum of CSO’s committed to protecting rights, justice, and peace worldwide. Thank you once more for your solidarity and friendship, and, of course, for the protection you guarantee.
Luisa Chiodi, Director at Osservatorio Balcani e Caucaso