Dread Returns after months of downtime – What changed?

For years, the Dread Forum has been the largest discussion forum on the dark-net. Dread made its first appearance in 2018, and has had hundreds of thousands registrations since. In November of 2022, Dread was forced to go offline due to prolonged DDoS attacks. Since then there have been multiple rumors about the platform, and skepticism about its return.

What happened?

When Dread went offline in late 2022, its founder known as HugBunter made some announcements. He claimed that the latest attacks were of massive scale, and kept crippling their systems. This forced them to shut down the servers. There have been many rumors about these attacks. Some suggested it was some government, others thought it was an extortion tactic.

In recent months, different markets reported being taken offline, and threatened with a ransom. It is believed that a single individual or group is responsible for this. No claims or evidence have been brought forward to suggest that Dread was targeted by that group.

The return of Dread.

By the end of 2022 Dread forum was still inaccessible. The team behind it promised that they are working to make it better, but the community had doubts. BugHunter kept updating people through multiple delays, and promised that the return was imminent. Dreads team has kept their promise, and the forum finally became accessible on march. 5 years after its first appearance, dread lives on, and its legacy continues.

What’s new?

Many are happy to see that no major changes have been made to Dread. Overall the forum remains the same, with some minor user interface tweaks. Most of the effort was put into the back-end, to ensure a safe and reliable user experience.

HugBunter claims that the forum now runs on a new clustered server structure. This new system is designed specifically to combat any major DDoS attacks. He stated that the implementation took so long because of the use of highly customized software. HugBunter also commented on recon as it has been a part of dread for a long time. He stated that the service is also being rebuilt from the ground up, and will not be returning just yet.

Dread lives on.

It comes as no surprise to many that dread has returned, and is better than ever. The forum has been reliable for many years and has been trusted by many. Despite its down time, dreads services like their market DDoS protection remained operational. Users can now access the forum using the original dread onion (click to access).