Exclusive: Big Brother was hit by DoS attack

Hackers hit Channel 4's Big Brother Web site last Tuesday with what has been described as a "massive denial of access (DoS) attack". Although not brought down, Big Brother conceded the attack caused significant problems for the site.

Big Brother is "a huge target for hackers" admits Chris Short, Content Manager for the site. Short now admits the DoS attack happened "when the first show went live", but is satisfied there have been no further attempts.

"Every facility has to be hack proof, and is undergoing rigorous testing by Intel", he says. Intel, obviously caught out by the efforts of the hackers, has since revamped server array to cope with future exploit attempts.

Despite Intel's best efforts though, Big Brother has experienced service slow-down since its launch.

Intel doubled the amount of servers at the end of last week in time for last Friday's television broadcast. "[Tuesday] night we're going to have to take a view on whether the existing infrastructure is enough to cope with the live broadcast this Friday when the first contestant will walk the bridge of shame" says Short.