Microsoft announced today, along with others, that they would be streaming "The Interview", a movie that has a lot of controversy around it, along with others distributors like Google. Not long after that announcement was made, Microsoft"s blog went offline.
While we do not know the exact reason why the blog is offline, the timing seems incredibly suspicious. The hackers behind the Sony attack made many threats about the release of the movie and seeing that Microsoft"s blog is offline, makes it appear like they were targeted as part of the release.
It is worth pointing out that other Microsoft"s properties, like Microsoft.com and their stores are still online. Also, Xbox Live, which would seem like the logical point of attack to knock the stream offline, is up and running as well. In short, if this is an attempt to impact Microsoft for streaming the movie, it is limited in scope as knocking a single blog offline is not the hardest thing to do if you have a modest sized botnet at your disposal.
Some users are reporting that they are able to access the blog but it seems sporadic if the site will load on an individual basis. We have had several tips confirming that the site is down while others have been able to access the page but with long loading delays.
We will keep an eye on Xbox Live as well as other Microsoft (and Google) properties to see if there are any more abnormalities following the announcements by both companies that they will stream the movie.