LOCHGELLY community website, Loch of Shining Waters, has reached another milestone after receiving an invitation from Google to join their Project Shield programme, which aims to protect news sites and free expression from DDoS attacks on the web.

DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service) is a common tactic used against websites in an attempt to make a website unavailable by overwhelming the servers with traffic from multiple sources.

Chairperson Terry? Mclean ?said:? “Our volunteers James Glen, George Kinnell and Andrew Connolly, have been working overtime stabilising the site from repeated DDoS attacks which peaked during the 4 Winds Trust and Lochore Meadows scandals.

"Our volunteers work hard to bring verifiable data to public attention. Dealing with DDoS attacks has been a drain on our services which recently forced us to relocate the website to new servers.”

Project Shield is a project created and maintained by Google to protect free expression and news sites online. The service is only provided to qualifying news, human rights, or election monitoring organisations and individual journalists.

Shining Waters secretary James ?Glen ?commented?:? “This is a great tribute to the work of our volunteers.

"We wouldn't be where we are today without our hard-working volunteers, dedicated board and the continued support of residents who bring us news stories and share our articles. Google's recognition is particularly welcome at a time when we continue to be the target of personal abuse for daring to publish information which residents have a right to know.

"Those in authority have not always welcomed the publication of this information when it has shone a less than favourable light on their activities. ?

"Aside from personal attacks on volunteers and board members, ?it has also provoked ?cyber attacks on the site as a means of restricting the public availability of this information. With the backing and support from Google we can now provide a more stable platform to continue the collective work of Shining Waters.”

Project Shield was designed by Google to detect and eliminate DDoS as a form of censorship. It? is provided as an invite-only service to qualifying sites to help protect journalism and promote free speech.?

Project Shield Community Manager Justine Rivero said: “I’m happy to invite you to Project Shield! We’re excited to help protect your website. Welcome aboard.”