Malicious hackers attack media startup after Hillary Clinton endorses it

Hillary Clinton just can't catch a break.

The former Democratic presidential candidate endorsed a relatively unknown startup called Verrit this weekend — and in the process, inadvertently made them a target for cybercriminals.

The strange turn of events started on Sunday evening with a simple tweet from the former Secretary of State, offering her personal support for a startup called Verrit.

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The relatively obscure website describes itself as a "media platform for the 65.8 million" people who supported Clinton in the presidential election by providing them with verified, sharable facts, stats, and memes used to debate people online.

But soon after Clinton's tweet, the website stopped loading for visitors. Verrit creator Peter Daou later told Recode that the company was the target of a “pretty significant and sophisticated” cyberattack. He also released a public statement on Twitter.

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Daou said that the website was forced offline with what he believes was a denial-of-service (DDoS) attack. This type of cyberattack has become a favorite among adversarial hackers who use it to overwhelm websites with web traffic.

Despite the sophisticated attack, Daou has high hopes for the longterm future of Verrit. He told Recode he hopes the site will eventually launch a podcast, political analysis, a YouTube channel, and more. It essentially sounds like he wants it to grow into a successful left-leaning media company.

Daou believes there's a legitimate need for Verrit because of the "constant harassment and bullying from the radical right and fringe left." He thinks that his company will essentially help people separate reality from fake news.

Lucky for him, not all was lost during the DDoS attack. According to CNBC, the site managed to attract 11,000 new followers in the two hours following Clinton's endorsement. Let's just hope these type of cyberattacks don't always follow an endorsement from Clinton.