GoDaddy Goes Down, Anonymous Claims Responsibility 483
An anonymous reader writes "A member of the Anonymous hacktivist group appears to have taken down GoDaddy with a massive Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS). The widespread issue seems to be affecting countless websites and services around the world, although not for everyone. Godaddy.com is down, but so are some of the site's DNS servers, which means GoDaddy hosted e-mail accounts are down as well, and lots more. It's currently unclear if the servers are being unresponsive or if they are completely offline. Either way, the result is that if your DNS is hosted on GoDaddy, your site may also look as if it is down, because it cannot resolve."
You think this is a Game? (Score:2, Interesting)
what was the point of this? (Score:2, Interesting)
I guess somewhere down the line we may get an answer, but I really have to wonder: Why GoDaddy?
Re:You think this is a Game? (Score:3, Interesting)
We need a new DNS system (Score:5, Interesting)
Events like this further underline why we need a new secure, distributed DNS system, one that is not subject to tampering by either Anonymous or ICE. Yes, there's a huge installed base issue to deal with, but DNS is falling apart, and if things continue the way they have been, the Internet may be completely balkanized across national lines in a few more years.
Unorthodox business practices. DON'T DO BUSINESS! (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Glad I moved my domains (Score:4, Interesting)
Good work! Stand by GoDaddy, pay for expensive web hosting of low quality with a long track record of bad security and customer fucking. If more people were like you folks wouldn't be so quick to shit on the little guy.
Re:You think this is a Game? (Score:5, Interesting)
On top of that, you didn't read the TOS from GoDaddy. That allows *them* to turn your site off on a whim without prior notice. This might just be the hackers turning on the built-in kill switch for every GoDaddy site simultaneously.
I think this will backfire. (Score:5, Interesting)
So a bunch of non-profit groups I support are down thanks to these "activists".
SOPA opposition, "ends justify the means even if it means f*cking over everyone with our scorched earth actions", and the "if you were stupid enough to be supporting our enemy then you are just collateral damage because we are so right we're justified in harming you to make a point" aside, I don't think it will win them many fans.
Re:You think this is a Game? (Score:5, Interesting)
Well, it explains why my podcast app didn't update my favorite podcast--just ran a whois to confirm that they're hosted on GoDaddy.
What's obnoxious about something like this is that the attack isn't likely to get the attention of the general public. Most people will see their favorite site is down, say "Aw, shucks," and check again later. The news likely won't even mention this, what with election season going on and giving them better yellow journalism fodder. The people who will know the reason why some of their favorite sites are down are like those here on Slashdot: The same people that already dislike GoDaddy.
I'm not saying that protest is a bad thing--far from it. But ineffective protest is. All this attack accomplishes is to hurt the little guy--the people who use GoDaddy.
But maybe I'm wrong. Maybe GoDaddy's customers will all jump ship because of this. I doubt it, though.
Re:You think this is a Game? (Score:5, Interesting)
Their decision was made because it was the short-run profiteering thing to do.
There, fixed that for ya. The fiscally responsible thing to do is to ensure the long-run fitness of the United States and global economy.
The MPAA and RIAA are pushing for increasing the strength of their regulatory monopolies to channel a larger share of GDP into their products, which shifts us further out on the cultural supply curve. That increases units produced and per-unit price, which has the effect of increasing cultural production while reducing the per-unit cost efficiency. That would be a good thing if we were suffering from a shortage of cultural production and the economy was running strong. Since we are on the opposite side of both those balances at the moment, however, supporting that agenda to curry their favor is short-run profiteering -- not fiscal responsibility.
Re:You think this is a Game? (Score:5, Interesting)
His point is that GoDaddy supported SOPA, which allowed companies to shut down websites on a whim.
If you continued to support GoDaddy after learning about this, then it is assumed you're fine with people's websites being shutdown for no good reason.
Therefore, why are you upset now?
You're the roofer on the Death Star. You knew the risks.
Actually, his point is probably that GoDaddy's policies, regardless of SOPA/PIPA support, allow them to shut down websites on a whim. They've repeatedly demonstrated this by completely shutting down entire accounts when served a DMCA complaint for one site. http://yro.slashdot.org/story/12/05/25/1744246/photographer-threatened-with-legal-action-after-asserting-his-copyright [slashdot.org] is one example. (Part of the reason she went crazy was that all of her sites, including one regarding special needs children, were suspended after GoDaddy received the DMCA complaint over one photo on one specific site.)
GoDaddy has made it clear that it takes very little to convince them to suspend a customer's entire account. If you choose to use GoDaddy's services, that's a risk you're taking.
Re:Glad I moved my domains (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:This is big (Score:0, Interesting)
Re:You think this is a Game? (Score:5, Interesting)
What's obnoxious about something like this is that the attack isn't likely to get the attention of the general public. Most people will see their favorite site is down, say "Aw, shucks," and check again later.
"Most people" aren't the target audience here. The target audience is IT administrators who are given the task of choosing a domain hosting solution.
Domain hosting choice involves a lot of factors such as cost, customer satisfaction, down-time, and so on. If Anonymous can insert a new factor "being down due to backlash from unethical behaviour", they will have accomplished their goal.
Numerous studies show that tiny influences can have a noticeable effect on large populations. We see this all the time where human decision-making is involved - tiny influences will not sway any individual decision, but those same tiny effects have enough of an effect to be measurable in the population at large.
That's what Anonymous (or rather, the hacker with "Anonymous" in his name) is doing here - generating a new, tiny influence which might have an effect on the overall population.
They are bringing "company reputation" back into the purchase decision process.
Re:You think this is a Game? (Score:5, Interesting)
It's affecting a lot more than commerce.
My cancer research website is down, too. (Only works on computers that had cached the DNS entries.) So much for inviting seminar speakers today.
I'm an academic. I set my site up years ago (before all the SOPA business) and don't have time to muck with moving my site around, hosting DNS here and content there, and the like. I barely have time to maintain content in the middle of a busy research career. I suppose I'm now supposed to be an expert on mathematical modeling + cancer + hosting my own DNS?
It's always worth keeping in mind that these things affect far more than business sites.