Saving Country Music Suffers Cyberattack Over Morgan Wallen Article
Just a quick note,
At 8:00 am Friday morning (5-24), Saving Country Music suffered a coordinated, targeted, malicious, and catastrophic cyberattack that made the website inaccessible for over six hours. In sixteen years of operation, and over 8,500 articles published, an attack of this size and scope has never been experienced by Saving Country Music, and the website has never been unavailable for as long of a period.
Cyberattacks and hacking attempts happen all of the time on websites, especially ones the size of Saving Country Music that sit in a Goldilocks zone of being big enough to be an enticing target, but small enough to not have a massive IT team to deal with such attacks. Luckily, Saving Country Music has never been a victim of such things previously, aside for passing and sporadic intermittent outages most users wouldn’t even notice.
What was the target of this cyberattack? It was an article published on May 22nd called “Country Music Has a Morgan Wallen Problem. It Is a Complex One.” The article was targeted in a large scale DDoS attack of a scale the individuals pressed into duty to help fight it claim they have rarely seen. Without getting too technical, DDoS attacks work to take down websites by sending them so many requests from so many different IP addresses, all the requests can’t be fulfilled, making the website inaccessible.
Even after blocking a total of 24,062 separate malicious IP addresses, the cyberattack continued. Eventually, it was brought under control by blocking access to the Morgan Wallen article being targeted. This had to be done through a 3rd party, since myself and my IT team had lost access to Saving Country Music ourselves. The article still remains unavailable as the cyberattack could very well be ongoing as we speak.
Since bringing the cyberattack under control though, the website is working fine, and provisions have been made to make sure similar attacks cannot happen again. But of course, you never know. This attack circumvented redundant amounts of safeguards and firewalls to successfully knock out the site for six hours. Both the attack and the efforts to resolve it and prevent future attacks comes at a great expense to Saving Country Music as the price of playing poker in the online publishing business continues to rise.
Not to be too dramatic, but I do take this cyberattack as an attack on the freedom of speech and expression, and an affront to engaging with important topics in country music with depth and nuance.
There is no reason to believe that the Morgan Wallen camp or anyone affiliated with it was involved in the attack at all. It was likely a fan or a group of fans. But after consulting with the team that helped mitigate the attack, I can say with a high degree of confidence that the attack was purposeful, targeted, and malicious. Otherwise, they likely would have targeted the home page of the website, login pages, etc. as opposed to a specific article published 48 hours previous.
It’s unfortunate how many overlook how Saving Country Music handled the news of Morgan Wallen recently being turned down by the Nashville City Council for an outdoor sign, which was the impetus for the article. Though many Morgan Wallen fans were angry at the article, some Morgan Wallen critics characterized it as too apologetic and defensive of his actions.
Either way, Saving Country Music will not be deterred from sharing important news, commentary, and criticism on country music. Though an attack like this may hurt in the short-term, it steels the resolve even more to speak the truth and address important topics heading into an increasingly dangerous and confusing future, regardless of the consequences.
Thanks for reading,
–Kyle “Trigger” Coroneos
May 24, 2024 @ 6:01 pm
My takeaway from that article was by NO MEANS “wow Trigger is really letting Morgan Wallen have it with this one, MW fans are going to be PISSED” lmao. I genuinely have no idea what exactly in the article could have gotten somebody upset enough to launch a giant cyberattack, whoever it is needs to get a life.
May 25, 2024 @ 7:27 pm
Agreed, if anything it was a lot kinder to him than 90% of reviews and comments I see about him on country music pages on Facebook or Reddit.
May 25, 2024 @ 10:41 pm
We love you Morgan Wallen !!!! You’re a very talented and sweet person who just gets in a little trouble sometimes…but you are a badass musician and they are just jealous of you !! Don’t change for anyone !
May 26, 2024 @ 10:45 am
I don’t care who the artist is weirdo stans like you are scary.
May 31, 2024 @ 5:07 am
“Musician.”
Good one.
May 29, 2024 @ 7:12 pm
Fan boys are snowflaking over Morgan Wallen?
May 24, 2024 @ 6:02 pm
My takeaway from that article was by NO MEANS
“wow Trigger is really letting Morgan Wallen have it with this one, MW fans are going to be PISSED” Imao.
I genuinely have no idea what exactly in the article could have gotten somebody upset enough to launch a giant cyberattack, whoever it is needs to get a life.
May 24, 2024 @ 6:19 pm
Right leaning individuals tend not to be activistic in this way. Morgan Wallen apologized for using the rap-friendly N word and paid 500k yet Nashville city officials are stonewalling him from opening his bar. Activists on the right tend to say things that will cause offense and will argue until they feel that they won. The left is more willing to shut down discourse entirely and then claim victory. The fact that Trigger is being nuanced and objective is seen as an offense and betrayal to those who want to take Morgan Wallen down.
For the record I hate his music – in case anyone thinks I am a fan.
May 24, 2024 @ 7:35 pm
Strait,
You’re overlooking that the guy threw a metal chair off the roof of another bar in the vicinity that came close to hitting a cop–and is facing felony charges over it. They damn well should hold that applitcation in abeyance–at least until that is somehow resolved.
Having a liquor license is generally considered a privilege–not something that’s granted automatically. Yes, Trig pointed out that there’s actually a professional corporation behind the application, so it’s not really Morgan Wallen. But If the bar is not really owned by Wallen, then why is the slow-walking being held up as an example of the persecution of Morgan Wallen. He can’t have it both ways.
If anybody out there, visited New York in the late ’60s through the ’90s, or seen movies like “Annie Hall,” you might have seen a retaurant bar directly across from the Lincoln Center performing complex called “O’Neil’s Balloon.” Few people asked why the place was called a Balloon. The reason was that state liquor authority rule had a rule that you could not get a license for an establishment if you called it a saloon. (They thought that “saloon” conveyed lawlessness.) So the O’Neil brothers–an actor and a long time restaurateur–were kind of tweaking the Authority. And the joke ran for close to 30 years. (The prohibition on saloons has since been lifted.)
You give a license to a place called “Morgan Wallen’s” in downtown Nashville and 20-somethings might be going up to the roof and getting drunk and flinging stools and small tables and microphone stands in honor of the namesake/hero. If the Nashville or state authorities are holding back on this, I salute them. I thought the bible belt is supposed to be stricter on matters of alcohol than Sin City, anyway.
May 24, 2024 @ 8:49 pm
I disagree that Wallen’s chair throwing will directly inspire others to do the same simply because of the bars name. Rooftop bars are popular on Broadway already. There is an instagram account with a large following that has clips of drunk people doing stupid things including having sex and doing cocaine on broadway. People included to do stupid things will do them regardless. I do agree that Wallen should be charged with a felony for the chair throwing stunt.
Bible belt??? Your joke is about 30 years too late. There is no fundamental christian influence in Nashville. There are vapid trendy christians who drink and screw like everyone else.
May 26, 2024 @ 3:21 pm
Most modern Christians live a secular lifestyle first.
It is just reality. I have worked with athletes who attend FCA but listen to Cardi B and fornicate. Lukewarm apostles.
I would wage only about 10% of Western Christians live according to Scripture. The pure ones are living in secret in hostile nations. The Voice of the Martyrs has an excellent newsletter on the topic.
May 24, 2024 @ 8:13 pm
I looked into the liquor license thing and it doesn’t look like it was tied to Morgan Wallen’s behavior, but the contractors not having the building finished enough to qualify yet. Granted, sometimes cities will look the other way with certain things, and they may be less willing with a building with Wallen’s name on it. But I’m not sure there is a major issue here. They will get their license and open eventually, just not on Memorial Day.
May 24, 2024 @ 8:51 pm
The info that I saw may have been inaccurate and may have been incorrect speculation. But it was believable that city council members with influence to stop it, would try to do so.
May 25, 2024 @ 11:12 am
I have got to say I am a born and raised Nashville native. We are a small group it seems these days and I can see why now. I am so disappointed in how people act these days. I don’t mean Morgan Wallen! I mean all of the people that are so ready to judge this man. I am definitely older than Wallen and to be honest didn’t know who he was 3 months ago. I took my daughter to his recent concert and started looking into this man. Just to know about what everyone has been saying good and bad. This town has always been a safe haven for celebrities and musicians from paparazz and the craziness that follows them cause of stardom, but it seems that the more people come here cause of their jobs, not cause they really wanted to live in Nashville, the more I see that all that is going away. You should be ashamed of yourselves! He has been accused of this chair incident not and I repeat not convicted of anything. It’s innocent until proven guilty not guilty it proven innocent you should remember that. It was at the very least an accident. Do you guys have no memory of all the s#@! that the old school country singers did? What about what’s been going on in rap music in the last 5plus years. He is a man not a god and every man and women out there is not perfect. We make mistakes. I know it was 3 feet from a cop and if being truthful it was 3 ft from a person period. Not shows he threw it off the roof on purpose. It was that magical thing that happens to everyone human being. IT WAS A ACCIDENT! By know means should he be crucified. The Metro Council are not supposed to be the morality police. If you really believe that this sign doesn’t meet the requirements that are set in place or it is offensive then ok, but you really think that people are going to start throwing things off the roof you are not intouch with how this man’s fans are. He is going to bring so much more money into our town, which helps everyone. He is making country music bigger than I can remember it being in at least the last 50 plus years. He is not a bad guy. He has had every move watched and scrutinized. I venture to say that if anyone was watched, as he has been, someone would find something wrong with something they had done. People that live in glass houses shouldn’t cast stones at others. Like his music or not that on you, I don’t normally listen to country so don’t think this has anything to do with that, but I think everyone should be treated with kindness and fair. If the council had a reason other than a word he used that he apologies for or an accident, where nobody got hurt at all, for their denial of his sign then ok, but that’s not been the case. They need to do their job not judge cause they are not judges. The bar will open with or without a sign. They will never be able to keep his fans from going to the bar. Why doesn’t someone actually see the bigger picture and try to see Morgan Wallen really could have put this bar anywhere, cause this isn’t his hometown, but he chose here and it is helpful for our town in multiple ways. We all need to be better towards people period not so judgemental.
May 25, 2024 @ 11:24 am
I don’t condone this attack at all it is a malicious act but in these days we are in this seems to happen in protest to what younger people see as an attack on them and the way they feel. They want it to be a big deal to show that the way they fill is a big deal also. There are other ways I say to the people who did this and if you weren’t prepared, and it doesn’t seem you were, for something like this. We’ll, it here and maybe the silver lining for you guys is people read your more of your reporting and story than you thought they did. You are now at a higher level. Say your peace you have that right just always remember everyone won’t agree and some will show you in ways that are not quite right.
May 25, 2024 @ 3:35 pm
No, Bunnie, Wallen throwing the chair wasn’t an accident. This is what he said about it on social media ““I didn’t feel right publicly checking in until I made amends with some folks. I’ve touched base with Nashville law enforcement, my family, and the good people at Chief’s. I’m not proud of my behavior, and I accept responsibility,” he wrote. “I have the utmost respect for the officers working every day to keep us all safe.”
I don’t agree with the city council’s decision, but they did it because of that chair, the damage it could have done, and the example it set.
May 24, 2024 @ 9:03 pm
How could they not know that before today?
May 24, 2024 @ 9:47 pm
Trig,
I’m sure you’re correct on the facts. But I find it somewhat appalling that the chair incident is not an issue here, and and I’m just having a little fun with this thing.
Oh, and frack all those Wallen fans who are going after you and topedoed this site. If anything, you’ve been extra-tolerant of the guy.
May 25, 2024 @ 9:50 pm
You seem to avoid my comment stating that I believe he should be charged with a felony for the chair incident.
May 25, 2024 @ 8:42 am
You only need one person to set off a massive attack like this. The technical geek term for this is “DDoS” (distributed denial of service). Trig described it pretty well regarding the IP addresses. (BTW, I can throw the word “geek” around like that – 35 years in the IT business before retiring, and I wear it as a badge of honor).
In fact, one person with a little bit of skill could write a script to do all the work, start it running and it’s off to the races.
May 25, 2024 @ 5:45 pm
You used to be able to download a program called High Orbit Ion Cannon and just input the address you want to spam. Allegedly this was the case in the aughts. I wouldn’t know, of course. And you could find it on 4chan, theoretically.
May 24, 2024 @ 6:13 pm
I tend to think that it wasn’t a group of Morgan Wallen fans that did this but rather people who are aggrieved that there are people commenting in support of Morgan Wallen. I can’t confirm this but there are many left-wing hackers who had launched DDOS attacks on edgy right-wing and alt-right websites and brought them down. I can’t think of any examples off hand where right wing hackers brought down an edgy left wing site. I’m not saying this to be needlessly politcal but there are many on the Left who are very pissed off that Morgan Wallen is receiving any support.
Just today there was news that his catering/beer license was not approved so that his bar cannot open this holiday weekend.
May 25, 2024 @ 7:31 am
It was clearly Morgan Wallen fans. The article was linked to some fan page.
May 25, 2024 @ 11:08 am
Anti-fans can still visit the page and pretend to be a fan. I could be wrong but I have trouble believing that a die-hard Wallen fan is smart enough and savvy enough to pull off any kind of hacking stunt.
May 24, 2024 @ 6:21 pm
I just got into the article through another link. If I were you, I’d look at Jon, lol. He said “mind your own damn business before someone starts minding it for you.” Rabid fan has a whole new meaning.
May 24, 2024 @ 8:33 pm
This was Jon’s comment:
“Say what you will, but the article is ridiculous, “Jelly Roll is a convicted felon who has done prison time”….FUCK YOU, so did Johnny Paycheck,Merle Haggard (who was pardoned), AND MORE….It’s the fact that Morgan Wallen is a young guy, who does what HE likes, and the people just so happen to like it as well, He makes dumbest choices and struggles with his vices, im 35 and do the same shit, he’s NORMAL….he’s HIMSELF…AUTHENTIC….and to be that young and be out there doing it every night even though your reading the negative feedback, while trying to raise a kid in a “normal” setting, ontop of his dad being a pastor, and mother a southern Belle, he’s got pressure from every angle, but he doesn’t give up because he enjoys making music, it’s not about the few who don’t like it, it’s about doing what you love and staying true to yourself, while being grounded. I DID A MILLION TIMES worse shit than he’s done by the time I was 19, and didn’t have to deal with half the bullshit he does…..Cut the man some slack, and stop using people’s past against them, stop focusing on wyf they’re doing and focus on what you’re doing….everyone has some dirt on them, who the hell wants to have someone constantly reminding them of their mistakes and all…noones perfect, but if your gonna live life, you may as well be dumb, make mistakes and have some fun and learn some lessons, life’s too short…enjoy the music and the shows….or dont…whatever you like, but Jesus H Christ, mind your own damn business before someone starts minding it for you.”
So yeah, there was definitely some anger coming at me.
But what’s a little frustrating is in the article, I disputed one of the Nashville City Council members who falsely said Morgan Wallen did not fulfill his $500,000 pledge, and I also talked about how country music’s institutions cannot just act like Morgan Wallen doesn’t exist and ignore his popularity without expecting repercussions. Perhaps Saving Country Music is the one they decided to take their anger out on.
May 24, 2024 @ 9:47 pm
“….he’s HIMSELF…AUTHENTIC….”
Hahahahahaha. Oh…wait, that was a serious comment? Lol. Wallen is about as contrived as they come.
Jon sounds a little unstable. What kind of mental midget threatens someone over an opinion piece? That’s rhetorical, of course. So many deeply disturbed individuals taking up space in this mad world.
Sorry to hear about the attack, Trig.
May 25, 2024 @ 2:05 am
Well, letting out a stream of f-words has become the standard way of expressing your disagreement with someone among millennials and older people who aim at that market. If I’m not mistaken, the media personality who introduced it to the mainstream was Jon Stewart in his first go-round on Comedy Central. I’ll admit, I laughed the first time I heard him do it. By the tenth time, I found it idiotic.
May 26, 2024 @ 10:34 am
Wow. DDoS can be a felony in the US, just saying.
May 24, 2024 @ 9:50 pm
i commented on that piece, and got a nastygram left for me by someone i’ve never heard of on this site. when i went to reply, i was blocked. so now it makes sense. and now, for whatever reason, that wordpress email is gone. interesting.
i was going to leave a “high road” response, cause what they said was very similar to what i see here. a lot of misplaced anger it seems.
hope you recover from this, trig. this site keeps me from blowing my brains out :))
May 25, 2024 @ 11:19 am
Keep the faith, brother. There are lots of things to keep one from blowing their brains out.
Cheers!
May 25, 2024 @ 1:05 am
This “incident” helped me understand how deep is my SCM addiction. Basically the only site i read daily. Glad it is back to normal now so i can carry on through my working day!
Dear Hackers please aim your anger somewhere else.
May 25, 2024 @ 1:20 am
I thought it was yet another well written article. I am not sure I agreed with it all but no reason to attack it. It did not seem to me to be an attack as such on Wallen. Wallen is nowhere near as badly behaved or as ‘hard’ looking as some and is more country. Give me Wallen any day rather than Post Malone or Jelly Roll! I am pleased you are back up and running. Keep up the good work.
May 25, 2024 @ 1:23 am
…this is not an attack on “saving country music” – this is an attack on the free world!
congrats trigger, anyone can get a shitstorm these days, but an outright cyber attack – that’s big league stuff, highest order and honor, well, sort of.
i couldn’t have imagined that morgan wallen has such an avid fan base in russia, china, iran or north korea. or do you think his mom might be behind all that? she didn’t seem too happy with that nashville council decision.
although my first thought was that you went fiddling with your it-equipment upon my comment “no more acm live blog but counting every spot that “cowboy carter drops…” just to show that there’s no messin’ with texas, this incident, which is bigger than anything john denver, jason aldean or florida georgia line could have done to country music must be answered in unmistakeable fashion. how about flying dale watson and gurf morlix in the mighty “scm one” to the capitals of the suspects to express the disgust of the free country music world as well as to underline your personal disgruntlement. in order to highlight the immense disapproval of all of us you could play the “independence day” chorus “let freedom ring…” in an endless loop for – say – three days on your spotify playlist. a whole week would be a little ott, probably. or use the ticker line at the top of the website to hit it home continously for the same amount of time. even though one could not discover that pretty great new jason eady tune or jenny don’t for a while.
all in all, and as annoying this attack might have been/be, look at the bright side: from now on you’re in the same illustrious country club as… – hillary clinton, for example.
May 25, 2024 @ 4:10 am
So I have a technical question for you Trigger.
How can one page on a website be targeted? Did they send load requests for that specific page from multiple IP addresses?
I own a WISP in Indiana and I’ve had a teenage kid gamer piss off his fellow gamers and they attacked his IP address swamping my incoming transport and taking town my entire network, but I’ve never heard of a single webpage being attacked like that. That is a new one on me.
May 25, 2024 @ 9:27 am
Some of this is above my pay grade, but those who look to attack a site have the capability of accessing tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of IP addresses, and then use them to swarm a site, shutting it down. We had blocked 24,062 IP addresses, and still it was being accessed by so many IP addresses, it didn’t make a dent.
If someone wants to take an entire site down, my guess is they would target the site itself. Often login pages are the target of cyberattacks, because that way they can gain access to the site if they’re successful. The fact that they targeted a specific article URL is what makes myself and the experts who were helping me with this that it was targeted at that specific article. Otherwise, they would have targeted the home page, or perhaps the last article published.
There is a possibility that this was not done by anyone looking to target that specific Morgan Wallen article, but the site itself. But either way, it was targeted and malicious. DDoS attacks and hacking attempts happen all the time, every day to websites. But most are just not big enough to get anywhere close to success. This was a massive, brute force attack to overwhelm all security.
May 25, 2024 @ 4:58 am
F EM Trigger!!! Keep doing what your doing. We don’t always agree 100 but you keep it 100 I feel.
May 25, 2024 @ 5:20 am
I like wallens music at least some of it. I always felt the n word incident far as all the hoopla over it was stupid. It wouldnt have existed had someone just minded their own business. The chair incident however is not as such. Its a serious thing thst could have hurt someone. I dont think it should be a felony but he def needs to at least be held accountable and learn from it. Trig has at times been a little too hard but at the same time, hes been the other way at times. I really hate those who commit cyber crimes however whether it be for stuff like this or holding businesses or people hostage for ransom. Extreme max penalties should apply.
May 25, 2024 @ 5:25 am
That’s a weird scenario where someone is so pissed they try to bring the side down but don’t simply target the base URL or home page after getting blocked.
May 25, 2024 @ 9:29 am
This was unusual, and why it seems like it was targeted at that specific article. In fact, perhaps the hacker didn’t want to bring down the whole website, just that page. But the end result was it overwhelmed the entire server, and everything went 404.
May 25, 2024 @ 6:20 am
Crazy stuff here. Another reminder that no one is ever completely safe on the internet. If someone wants to come after you, there is little you can do about it, and even less help to recover. Scamming and hacking have become the number one world wide business. Be safe out there and protect yourself.
Hope you get all this figured out Trigger.
May 25, 2024 @ 7:00 am
“Either way, Saving Country Music will not be deterred from sharing important news, commentary, and criticism on country music. Though an attack like this may hurt in the short-term, it steels the resolve even more to speak the truth and address important topics heading into an increasingly dangerous and confusing future, regardless of the consequences.”
Then immediately post another version of the article if you are not deterred! Stand up!
I seriously doubt the attack was from anyone related to country music…think about it. Also, the City Council sure took a beating in the comments. Guess they didn’t like it too much.
May 25, 2024 @ 7:31 am
The original article will be made available again here shortly.
May 25, 2024 @ 7:11 am
The sheer amount of thin-skin & over-sensitivity is staggering. To get so deeply butthurt & offended over an opinion piece written on the internet, that you go to darknet and order a ddos-attack, that is some shit-house-rat levels of crazy. Guys like this are extremely vengeful & petty, and i doubt that this will be the last time he’ll try to mess with your site. Be prepared Trig.
May 25, 2024 @ 7:37 am
Wow. I read the article and I found it interesting and informative. I didn’t get angry lol.
Definitely sounds like a fan attack – not naming names of fan groups, but we all know of a few that enjoy bullying and harassing for their stars. It happens.
May 25, 2024 @ 7:51 am
Ah, so that’s why I couldn’t reach the site yesterday. Hopefully SCM will be safe from further attacks by butt-hurt people.
May the fleas of a thousand camels infest the arse of the enemies of SCM.
May 25, 2024 @ 11:13 am
I think the only thing more embarrassing than being a Morgan Wallen fan is to be a Morgan Wallen fan who commits cybercrimes in their spare time but not for money, for defending the honor of Morgan Wallen.
May 25, 2024 @ 1:23 pm
Sir Honkey must’ve been spending the last year taking online coding classes, just waiting for the right time to pounce!
May 25, 2024 @ 3:54 pm
I mean, if you’re really that mad about it then go gripe at the city council.
The level of sheer dumbassery in this world.
For the record, I’m not a robot.
May 25, 2024 @ 5:21 pm
Did Morgan Wallen pull it off himself? I doubt it. I don’t think he has enough brain cells.
May 25, 2024 @ 5:59 pm
Morgan Wallen barely has enough brain cells to order lunch.
May 25, 2024 @ 8:17 pm
FYI folks.
The attack on Saving Country Music is continuing. I’ve had to make the Morgan Wallen article unavailable again, and we’ve had to put up other safeguards to keep bot traffic from hitting the site. You might see these when you try to access a page. I know they are annoying, but this is all that is keeping Saving Country Music up at the moment.
Thanks for your understanding.
May 25, 2024 @ 9:52 pm
Trigger, perhaps you can change the url address of the morgan wallen article – tweak the title or something and change the address of that particular article instead of making it completely unavailable. if they’re targeting that particular article, then it’ll be directed at the old url which will still be unavailable.
May 26, 2024 @ 7:02 am
I might do that at some point, but the concern at the moment is that by doing that, we may open a second vector of attack. Right now, the majority of the DDoS traffic is centered on that one page. No reason to give it somewhere else to point. We’re already seeing a massive spike in traffic to login pages as well.
May 27, 2024 @ 11:06 pm
Love Morgan Wallen! I’ll defend him for as long as you assholes have no life and nothing better to do but be so damn nasty to a man you have never met! Shame everybody can’t be as perfect as you! Damn hypocrites! Jesus won’t ask you about Morgan’s life, he will ask you about yours!
May 25, 2024 @ 9:48 pm
Thank you for being so transparent about this. Firstly, and most importantly, never let this or anything similar prevent you from writing exactly what you believe is right.
Second, while clicking on the button to prove i’m human is annoying, the alternative is worse so keep it up as long as it’s necessary.
May 26, 2024 @ 6:33 am
I’m sure the article was targeted because it took the time to explain the false reporting occurring with the Morgan Wallen story. So much of the media will just lie and lie to the readers I appreciate a publication who can actually explain and tell the truth. They weren’t trying to excuse any of his behavior just trying to correct some of the falsehoods.
May 26, 2024 @ 8:13 am
You know what they say about turning over rocks ????
Wallen is an outright moron no two cents about that one but hackers who are fans of wallen and then do a DDOS attack on a music web site like Saving Country Music are in a league of morons all to themselves.
What absolute window lickers!
Long live SCM! Get er done Trig!
May 26, 2024 @ 12:49 pm
I like Morgan Wallen as a singer and think his music varies, some of it good, some of it bad. That said, a DDOS attack on SCM is about the pettiest, stupidest thing I can imagine, and I hope whoever’s responsible gets an epic ass-paddling. And a hefty fine.
May 26, 2024 @ 2:14 pm
I wondered why I haven’t been able to see SCM for a couple of days. The ironic part (is that you, Alanis?) is that is was not the Swifties or the Beyhive behind this , but the Walleyes. SMH.
May 27, 2024 @ 1:08 am
Despite many commenting mean things about being a Morgan Wallen fan, I’ll admit to being a huge one. I’m by no means a “moron” as a few have labeled MW fans. I have a college degree and I’m a registered nurse. I like several different kinds of music, but MW is my go to for the past several years. Say what you want about MW being a moron; he’s sure making a killing in his career for “not having enough brain cells to order lunch.”
With that said, I read the article from the other day and I thought it was extremely well written, fair, and factual. My husband and I actually had a discussion about it and i had started reading through some of the comments before the site was unavailable. Just because we like the guy and his music doesn’t mean we’re all stupid, so can we please not make that very general assumption?
The other thing I wanted to add is that I don’t think MW would approve of or encourage this attack or any behavior of the type. I point to his concert at Nissan Stadium earlier this year as evidence of this. When he commented on breaking the attendance record there, he said he’d likely lose that record when Taylor Swift came to play it. The fans booed Taylor and he said “we don’t have to boo, we don’t have to boo.” Many other artists would have encouraged that behavior, he did not. He’s done some incredibly stupid stuff, no doubt about it, but for most of it he’s paid his dues and then some! I do think he is and has been fighting an undeserved amount of opposition from country music even though he’s done a ton for the industry. Luckily for MW he does have a loyal fan base so it really doesn’t matter if country music doesn’t want to support him, because we will. However, just because we’re loyal doesn’t mean we’re unlawful… something to think about.
Take care and God bless. ♡
May 27, 2024 @ 5:34 am
I tried to read the article on Friday and was blocked . I figured someone was triggered ( no pun intended) and attacked your website.
I’m happy to read you’ve gotten it straightened out.
May 27, 2024 @ 8:42 am
I noticed the comments section was getting flooded with posts in defense of Wallen before the cyberattack happened. Its interesting that for as much as Trig was worried about the Beyhive coming after him for his Beyonce articles, it was the Wallen stans who ultimately took things too far.
May 27, 2024 @ 10:14 am
Trigger,
I’m sorry to read the website is having issues because of a specific article you wrote has been targeted. I’m sure it is both time consuming and expensive to block the denial of service attacks. I’m also sure this action will not keep you from writing future articles that both inform the reader and express an unpopular opinion.
Thank you for informing us about what is happening. Continued success in keeping the website open.
May 27, 2024 @ 12:40 pm
I just so happen to be making my first visit to Nashville. I know absolutely nothing about construction but it seemed to me that there was a hell of a lot of work still being done at the end of last week and a lot of workers on-site. Last thing they needed was a situation like we had back home in the UK with the new Co-Op Live venue which very narrowly missed out on having a death on their hands.
May 27, 2024 @ 4:46 pm
I thought Morgan Wallen’s fans were supposed to be against “cancel culture”? Guess not!
May 27, 2024 @ 7:31 pm
Once again,Morgan Wallen’s career should be secondary to his finding sobriety,which would likely make his already bright career even more golden.
May 28, 2024 @ 5:56 am
for what it’s worth, i still cant access the site from my phone… made for a very long weekend
May 28, 2024 @ 7:10 am
You can’t access the site at all from your phone?
The captcha challenges have been pulled down. The only think that should be blocked is the original Morgan Wallen article.
June 6, 2024 @ 10:56 am
Same, here. Today was the first day I’ve been able to access at all since last week. I had to clear my search history and wipe my cache clean to get back here.
June 6, 2024 @ 11:12 am
Very sorry you were having issues accessing the site. If this ever happens, please reach out so we can look into it, via social media, or however you can get a hold of me. Every indication is that the vast majority of folks have been able to access the site. But there are people that can’t, I want to know about it, but may not have any clue if myself and others are having no disruptions.
May 28, 2024 @ 7:05 am
Sorry to hear about the attack, Trigger. I’ve been wondering for days what is going on with the site, I still cannot reach it on my phone (where I typically reach the site). I’m here now on the office computer, but when I try to pull it up on my phone I get “error code 520”.
Do you, or anyone else, know why this may be?
May 28, 2024 @ 11:05 am
Hey Banjo King,
There was another comment this morning about the same thing. Though we can see everything just fine on mobile, we did find a potential issue for mobile users and resolved it. Please let me know if you still can’t see the site on mobile.
June 5, 2024 @ 7:30 am
Sorry for the delay Trig, I still cannot access the site from the safari app. I’m responding to you now through the website link on Instagram, which did work on my phone. But it will not work on my regular iPhone browser.
May 28, 2024 @ 8:01 am
The cross section of Morgan Wallen fans and people capable of orchestrating a DDoS attack has to be pretty small right?
May 28, 2024 @ 11:03 am
The problem is that amount of Morgan Wallen fans is incredibly massive. He’s far and away the 2nd most popular artist in America at the moment behind Taylor Swift. So you only need one who knows what button to push.
It’s also a possibility that whoever perpetrated the cyberattack wasn’t a Morgan Wallen fan at all. But it seems very strange that it would be that article they targeted, especially after it was already getting hit with so many negative comments from Morgan Wallen fans. It was getting linked to on social media, and causing quite a stir. They have been activated to “support” Morgan Wallen in whatever way possible from “cancel culture.”
May 28, 2024 @ 10:51 am
Start calling councilmen and council women start there . There planning and zoning and mayor of Nashville . We need to stand up for him and all other artist to come. They really can’t treat no one in the manner the do him . Start calling . Don’t Take no for a answer
May 29, 2024 @ 11:09 am
The attack is most likely by Mr. Wallen’s handlers. You know, the machine preventing him from being cancelled. Wallen is definitely getting a push by some powerful record execs. I mean, what straight, white male in this day and age would be allow to hurl the n-word on video and grow their following and fortune? Anecdote: He acts like a man who knows he’s invincible.
May 29, 2024 @ 7:22 pm
Morgan Wallen fans are about a notch under Swifties on the “insane, terrifyingly obsessive fanatical behavior” scale
May 29, 2024 @ 9:16 pm
Get with a better host! You’re big time now…. “Mike’s Computer and Hosting Shop” won’t cut it.
All kidding aside, you’ve been, for instance, quoted on CNN for your brave and unflinching critique on the Beyoncé affair, which I surmise brought you lots of exposure. If the so called “leftie troll army” were going to hit, they would have done it then and hit hard, since you were “fierce” in “unpacking” that phenomena.
Perhaps one should look at the “lift kit” set, I’m sure MW has his share of “Brohive” crazed troll fans too…. since he is wrought with “drama” and is precieved as a “victim”.
Such a shame a blogger- no strike that – a journalist has to put up with this. Regards…
May 30, 2024 @ 4:26 pm
DDoS can also be used to overwhelm a site/server in order to gain access to privileged areas of the platform you run on. I am guessing your host is Linux. I won’t prod around to find out.
Just hoping that they didn’t gain entry, logs, or things like this which can reveal your location as well as the locations of people who comment on this site. It would be a decent sized d0xxing for sure.
Personally, I have no issues with Wallen or his music. I enjoy some of it, no matter who dislikes it.
That being said, that trainwreck mashup between him and “Post Malone” is just horrible. I tried to hear it for the first time today and I got about 50 seconds in before I couldn’t handle it and that was that. It isn’t catchy. It doesn’t feel country, even a little, to me. And to be honest, I am no fan of Post Malone’s work. I am sure he is a fine person and all, possibly even with good heart (never looked into his background), but that collaboration needs to be buried in the “Well, we tried.” pit.
Trigger, appreciate your work and efforts here.
Still awaiting that scathing rebuke of Kane Brown.
May 30, 2024 @ 4:37 pm
There was absolutely no compromise in security during the DDoS attack, or any control gained over the site by the hackers. In fact part of the problem was the site was so crashed, my web team couldn’t even get into it to make changes to help mitigate the attack.
May 30, 2024 @ 4:47 pm
Happy to hear that, Trig. Sorry to hear about the Denial of Service.
Have a great evening.
June 4, 2024 @ 4:07 pm
I wondered what was going on (and is still going on via my Firefor browser. Glad you’ve weathered the storm. I guess it doesn’t occur to Wallen’s fans, if they were behind this, that they’re not doing his image any good by creating that suspicion.