Go Daddy Attack Story: The Morning After

GoDaddy.com just released a statement statement that the outage was due to internal networking errors and not because of an outside attack.  There was much speculation that the @AnonymousOwn3r claimed responsibility for the attack.  Possibly they were just leveraging this outage and making a claim as an external attack.  There hasn't been too much information regarding the nature of the outage or attack.  Most likely it is related to a Denial of Service (DOS) outage.  Denial of Service (Old School Definition): Denial of service would be same as someone leaving the phone off the hook without telling you.  Your phone line would be busy and no one in the house could make or receive calls.

What does this mean for you if you host with GoDaddy?

So far GoDaddy.com claims that no personal information, usernames or passwords were released during the outage or supposed attack.

If you experienced outages because of GoDaddy, I would definitely make a case for them to credit your account.  Make a note of the timing of the outage.  Keep record of the revenue stream that may have been interrupted.  Make a case for the reputation damage that the outage may have caused.  Just remember that there were millions of sites down so be patient.  GoDaddy.com will expect to see a mass exedus from their web hosting service after this shortage.  They definately need to act fast to “make this right” with their customers.  We shall see if they come out with any formal statement to their customers today or tomorrow other than, “We are working on it!”

What do you do if your website is down?

Obviously, it is frustrating to pay for the web hosting service and experience an outage.  That is what you are paying for!  However, it is out of your control.

Go to your Pinterest, Twitter, Facebook feed and let your followers/customers know that you are experiencing an outage and will send an update when the site is back up and running.

For larger businesses that require the 24/7 uptime, consider having a “Business Continuity Plan” in place.  This a plan that would cover any event that would disrupt business.  It also include performing daily back-ups of the site offline.  If you do experience an outage for more than 24 to 48 hours, you will have the data you need to migrate to a new hosting provider.  You will have work to modify your settings to be hosted with a new service provider.  If you don't have your own IT support, work with a web service provider that has a good support team.

What do you need to ask your Web Service Provider Today!

1. When was the last time your company experienced an outage?  How long did it last? What was the cause and was it fixed?
2. Are there multiple servers, networking devices, etc. in place?  Is my site stored on one server or multiple servers?  If one server goes down, will my website still be available?
3. Do you have a response team in place to handle any outages or attacks?
4. Do you provide any recourse or refund because of an outage?

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