Texas based web host provider Piryx, that specializes in non-partisan service for political fundraising groups and other non-profit entities, suffered a massive denial of service attack focused on the fundraising page for Joe Wilson, a United States House of congressman representing South Carolina. The digital attack was believed to be politically motivated in response to an incident in which the congressman interrupted US President Barrack Obama’s address to shout, “You lie!” from the House floor.

The distributed denial of service attack flooded Piryx servers and caused 150 other websites to experience down time until the incoming data could be managed in such a way that the service could be restored. Initially, Piryx says the attack was manageable, but once traffic spiked to a gigabyte per second, the server was knocked offline. Traffic blocking filters were put into place to negate the problem and bring Piryx customers back online.

Although politically motivated attacks are not common in the US, globally they have begun to take place with increasing frequency so web hosts are now looking to shore up their operations if they host sites that might fall victim to this sort of foul play. Incidents involving certain high profile South Korean and US websites in July 2009 and an attack against the website of Georgia’s president during that country’s altercation with Russia are seen as evidence that progressive measures must be taken in the web hosting industry.