An attack on the hosting provider Reality Check Network took down several major BitTorrent sites. According to Torrent Freak it was the biggest attack on torrent sites yet.

Although BitTorrent sites go down all the time for various reasons, the massive blackout is unusual. The list of names is impressive. Torrents.net, Vertor.com, Yourbittorrent.com, Torrentfunk.com, Torrenthound.com, Torrentreactor.net, Torrentzap.com, Torrentmatrix.com and Fulldls.com were taken out.

According to Reality Check Network the attack took place early Saturday morning. An intruder managed to corrupt the Master Boot Records of several servers. Backups are in place and are expected to be installed soon.

According to Reality Check Network the attack is being blamed on a disgruntled ex-employee who was with the company for three years as a result he had intimate knowledge of its systems. So not an RIAA plot after all.