Major web host and domain registrar GoDaddy is currently experiencing downtime, after what appears to be a major attack on the site.
At time of publication, the main GoDaddy.com site is down, as are thousands of websites and e-mail accounts hosted by the company. While it’s not unheard of for hosting companies to experience downtime, the worrying part of this attack is that Godaddy’s DNS records and nameservers are down. In effect, even if you’re not hosted by Godaddy you may still be affected if you’ve registered your domain name with them.
The official GoDaddy twitter account has said:
Status Alert: Hey, all. We're aware of the trouble people are having with our site. We're working on it.
— Go Daddy (@GoDaddy)
An individual known on Twitter as Anonymous Own3r has taken responsibility for the attack; while not currently confirmed by GoDaddy the downtime may have been caused by a large Denial of Service, or DDoS, attack.
@ wordwhacker nah it's not Anonymous coletive the attack is coming just from me
— Anonymous Own3r (@AnonymousOwn3r)
Whilst Anonymous as a group doesn’t appear to be directly involved, one of the main Twitter accounts for Anonymous voiced support. Whilst, if true, this attack seems to be malicious in nature, Anonymous has grown in notoriety in the past few years for a series of attacks and campaigns termed as Hacktivism, particularly against high profile sites such as MasterCard and Visa for perceived support of government action against Wikileaks.
Whatever the cause, this downtime potentially affects hundreds of thousands of websites, and may severely harm the company’s image as a reliable domain registrar and host. The alleged attack once again highlights security issues at large companies, and makes us wonder what else can be targeted.
Update: The majority of GoDaddy services have now been restored. GoDaddy has made a statement assuring customers that "At no time was any sensitive customer information, such as credit card data, passwords or names and addresses, compromised."
At time of publication, the main GoDaddy.com site is down, as are thousands of websites and e-mail accounts hosted by the company. While it’s not unheard of for hosting companies to experience downtime, the worrying part of this attack is that Godaddy’s DNS records and nameservers are down. In effect, even if you’re not hosted by Godaddy you may still be affected if you’ve registered your domain name with them.
The official GoDaddy twitter account has said:
Status Alert: Hey, all. We're aware of the trouble people are having with our site. We're working on it.
— Go Daddy (@GoDaddy)
10, 2012[/URL] An individual known on Twitter as Anonymous Own3r has taken responsibility for the attack; while not currently confirmed by GoDaddy the downtime may have been caused by a large Denial of Service, or DDoS, attack.
@ wordwhacker nah it's not Anonymous coletive the attack is coming just from me
— Anonymous Own3r (@AnonymousOwn3r)
10, 2012[/URL] Whilst Anonymous as a group doesn’t appear to be directly involved, one of the main Twitter accounts for Anonymous voiced support. Whilst, if true, this attack seems to be malicious in nature, Anonymous has grown in notoriety in the past few years for a series of attacks and campaigns termed as Hacktivism, particularly against high profile sites such as MasterCard and Visa for perceived support of government action against Wikileaks.
Whatever the cause, this downtime potentially affects hundreds of thousands of websites, and may severely harm the company’s image as a reliable domain registrar and host. The alleged attack once again highlights security issues at large companies, and makes us wonder what else can be targeted.
Update: The majority of GoDaddy services have now been restored. GoDaddy has made a statement assuring customers that "At no time was any sensitive customer information, such as credit card data, passwords or names and addresses, compromised."
