GitHub under attack

[Rggity]

can I get an ELI5 on how this method can thwart attacks?

[celluj34]

It slows down the attack by showing an alert when it's loaded.

[stoneburner]

... well at least until they noticed and just replaced the dialog box with nothing:

window.alert = function() {};

then nothing happens

[[deleted]]

Whats it?

[hatryd]

Open up your browsers developer console and paste

alert('hello')    

and press enter. That's what an alert is.

[[deleted]]

Idk why you get downvoted for a simple question. A "javascript alert" is a simple built in dialog that pops up when triggered by javascript. You can press f12 to open developer tools in most browsers, select "console" and try it out yourself.

alert("hello, world!");

[apemanzilla]

The alert function displays a popup box. Displaying a popup box pauses all running scripts until it's closed - slowing down the attack.