ZoneEdit Backup DNS Attacked by DDoS

DDoS attack leaves thousands of clients without DNS service

December 19, 2006 - ZoneEdit was targeted by a powerful Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack. The DDoS attack lasted for two days and left thousands of the company's clients without Domain Name Service (DNS) services. Many of the clients affected by the DDoS attack were paying for the DNS services.

At the time of the DDoS, ZoneEdit had 25 online DNS servers. Four of the DNS servers were brought down by unknown attackers. "It really was a massive denial of service attack," stated George DeCarlo, senior Vice President of marketing for Vancouver, Washington-based Dotster, the company that owns ZoneEdit. Although the DDoS attack took down less than 5 percent of the total clients, this added up to thousands of DNS clients. Some of them had their e-mail affected as well.

The free company's plan featured two DNS servers per client. Many clients that had high-volume online businesses had purchased rights to have a third DNS server as a backup. Unfortunately, one of the four targeted DNS servers was a backup server. At the time of the interview, DeCarlo did not know how long it would be before the DDoS attack was resolved. "It could happen in five minutes, it could happen later on today. [...] They're working on it as quickly as they can," stated DeCarlo.

This DDoS incident clearly shows that online companies are very vulnerable to costly DNS security breaches.

Source: InformationWeek.com

About Secure64 Software Corporation
Secure64® is a software developer providing highly secure DNS and server applications with built-in denial-of-service protection features to help ensure your Internet-dependent business is always accessible. Based on the genuinely secure SourceT® microOS, Secure64 DNS remains highly available during network attacks and is immune to compromise from rootkits and malware.

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