Righteous web: Orthodox search engine launched in Russia, hacked after 5 hours
“Seek and ye shall find” – these are the words under which developers of a new Orthodox search engine, deemed to filter the web and connect worshipers, pushed their test run button. But the site was hacked just five hours after it appeared online.
As the Russian Orthodox Church is gaining broader parish in the country and across the world, one Russian feature film director, Yury Grymov, decided to try and connect like-minded people by creating an Orthodox search engine and social network.
The results of his labors saw the red ribbon cut Tuesday – but the victorious moods did not last for long.
“Yesterday we launched the site in the test run mode. But after just five hours of work it was attacked. I am so surprised and upset that constructive ideas are like burrs in the saddle to some,” Grymov told TASS on Wednesday.
The site still remained non-operational by Wednesday night, with the main page claiming a DDoS-attack.
Grymov had been working on the project for two years as he had wanted to make it easier for people in Russia and from around the world to learn more about the faith. The site is said to focus on Orthodox Christian news and interviews with clerics expected to run blogs. The slogan says: “Seek and ye shall find.”
“This will be a convenient guide for worshipers as they will be able to search for everything they need including church calendars, icons and prayers. They will also be able to pose questions to the Russian Orthodox Church,” Grymov, who is also a member of the Culture Panel in the upper chamber of the Russian Parliament, said.
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The site rublev.com, is not run by the Russian Orthodox Church, though Grymov did consult with representatives from the church to get their ideas surrounding the project.
“Our information desk treats the idea of such a site with benevolence and will read it with interest,” the Synod Information Department of the Church told Kavpolit news agency.
In a post on Facebook, Grymov also said that the social networking side of the website will give Orthodox believers scattered around the world a perfect opportunity to connect. A mobile application is set to be released with the developers crowdfunding the project.
This is not the first site of its kind. In 2009, the search engine ImHalal was launched to filter web and exclude anything that might be “haram” in Sharia law, for instance, pornography or nudity.
