A massive attack appears to have been launched today against Dyn..
In case you missed it this morning, a lot of the Internet wasn’t working. Is this the first step in a Skynet take over? Did Kim Kardashian just post a new controversial picture to break the Internet?
Turns out it is a plain old DDoS. A massive one to be sure. But this is the type of thing that happens each and every day online.
What is unique here is the scale and the target of the attack. A massive attack appears to have been launched today against Dyn, one of the largest global providers of DNS service. This brought down some very popular sites like Twitter, Songza and Reddit.
Reports also indicate that it took down Shopify, Wix, Squarespace and other hosting platforms and, therefore by defacto, brought down hundreds of thousands of sites that rely on them. It is a stark reminder that no matter how good your service providers are, you cannot guarantee protection from failure if you only have one.
Every organization with important websites needs multiple DNS providers
Dyn themselves have pointed out the importance of having more than one provider. A good DNS provider with an Anycast cloud protects you from node outages, but there have been examples in the past of failures at these providers due to DDoS, software, admin, or other random issues. Those running their own DNS servers should be doubly aware. We agree with this and recently posted on the ways in which enterprises, hosting companies, and others should behave like domain registries in managing their DNS systems.
It illustrates that if you rely on your website, serve customer websites, or are anywhere in an online application stack you need backup at all layers of the network and software stacks. It is not enough to rely on a trusted supplier. IT managers must take on the responsibility to assess risk. As we know, in technology it is not IF something will fail but WHEN it will fail.
For more information about D-Zone Anycast DNS please visit our product page.
Rob brings over 20 years of experience in the technology industry writing, presenting and blogging on subjects as varied as software development tools, silicon reverse engineering, cyber-security and the DNS. An avid product marketer who takes the time to speak to IT professionals with the information and details they need for their jobs.
