Register.com outage still sparking debate and ridicule

by Steve Ragan - Apr 7 2009, 16:00

Last week, when the Internet’s eighth largest domain registrar was slammed by a Denial-of-Service (DoS) attack, customers of Register.com were left without service and, in some cases, answers. The DoS attack ultimately led to a 48-hour outage, and many customers quit the service citing a lack of communication from the company as a reason.

Register.com outage still sparking debate and ridicule. (IMG: Register.com)

"Services have been restored for most of our customers including hosting and email," Register.com chief executive Larry Kutscher said in an e-mail on Friday. "However, for some of our customers, services are not fully restored. We know this is unacceptable." The problem with that e-mail was that many customers never received it, as they used the same DNS services for mail that were under attack at the time. In addition, Register.com itself was knocked offline, so e-mails sent to the customer account profiles were unavailable. Other than that e-mail, the only update came from Register.com's account on Twitter. Interestingly enough, Register.com's customers on Twitter were the ones who broke the outage story. Early reports of the outage had Register.com blaming Conficker or, according to one Register.com customer who spoke to SANS ISC: "We are being told by Register.com that the April 1 issues are affecting them." This was likely not the case, as Conficker amounted to a bunch of nothing on April 01 -- but that's a different story. What the communication to SANS ISC highlights is a lack of internal information. The odds are a customer support agent reported there were issues related to April 01. The agent did this because call center management tells agents to do so. Adding to the issue is the lack of secondary communication from Registar.com. Its Web site was offline thanks to the attack, so there was no company blog to update, nor were there any formal updates to customers using other services.However, it is clear that after the issue and sometime during, Register.com's PR was working Google in search for blogs to comment on after it had written about the issue. One such blog, Digital Soapbox, which is ran by Rafal Los, had a comment from 'Nick D' who responded to a customer complaint left in the comment section of a Rafal Los rant focusing on the outage.The customer complained that his congregation’s site was down most of the day on Friday, and that he was reminded about placing all of one’s eggs in one basket. Nick D responded to his remarks, leaving no comment for Los, with: "We are very sorry that this has impacted you and your congregation. Unfortunately when we get attacked by some idiots who have no regard for those they impact, it hurts both us and our customers."While it was a nice touch to offer help in the comments of a blog post centered on the outage, it only shows that PR was working overtime to contain fires. Instead of worrying about what the blogosphere was saying at the time, most customers would rather have seen more energy spent on direct communication. "Now, I'm the first to say that a massive Domain Name behemoth like Register.com should be well-prepared to hold up against even a large-scale DDoS so I think it's only fair to ask those folks to be forthright and honest with the customers about what happened, how it happened, and what they are doing to build more resiliency into their infrastructure,” Los said in his blog.During the outage, complaints appeared all over the Internet, most hailing from customers who use Register.com’s services for business, and thus were losing money thanks to the down time. While not amounting to the millions or thousands an hour most claimed, there were probably some very legitimate losses as a result of the DoS attack.Several days after service had been restored, the complaints evened out, but questions remained; leading some to wonder why Register.com is remaining silent on the issue. Does it think it will go away if it doesn't talk about it? "My personal feelings here, as a customer of theirs affected by this outage, is that something should have been done to make sure I was at least getting minimal service during this massive outage. While you can't control things like a DDoS we know after years of research that there are technologies that can aide in holding back the flood-waters of a DDoS and at least let some transactions function," Los added.According to Register.com, it did deploy, "counter-measures to mitigate the attack and added capacity across the company’s network." It set up channels with major ISPs to re-enable customer services; it also isolated the profile of the attack through forensic data analysis, and even contacted the FBI and DHS.The issue with the information provided is that it looks as if countermeasures were added after the fact. If this is indeed the case, then why? It wouldn’t make sense for a registrar who holds over two million domains not to defend the network from the onslaught that can come from a DoS attack.What about the scope, length, and exact nature of the attack? Why is there no information on this aspect of the issue? What is Register.com doing to make its service resistant, or at least better protected, from this type of attack in the future? The Tech Herald dutifully asked those questions. However, at the time this article was published, there has been no response to our direct e-mails. The bottom line is that you cannot blame Register.com for the attack, or the lost services. There were things that should have been done differently, but it is still the victim.Want regular updates from The Tech Herald? Follow us on Twitter.

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blame register.comApr 7th, 2009 - 20:15:17

on one hand, 'don't blame the victim', and on the other hand, they were not protecting their customers' infrastructure, had single points of failure, and an inadequate technical and PR response'.

Cmon - other ddos take companies out for HOURS - this was many, many long days.

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Kirby SommersApr 10th, 2009 - 15:41:42

OPEN LETTER TO LARRY KUTSCHER, CEO OF REGISTER.COM

Larry,

While waiting to hear from you, I have discovered the following:

1. Register.com advertises on all of my parked domains, as well as everyone else’s domains. I was never told you would be doing this, I never consented to it, and to date I have not received ONE DIME from your use of MY REGISTERED DOMAINS.

2. I have also just discovered that Register.com is advertising on my PRIVATE domains where I pay your company EXTRA!! Again you are doing this without ever disclosing this fact to me, and to other customers.

In addition to accepting advertising revenue on my PRIVATE “Who is” information, Register.com has LINKS to your services!!

While researching customer complaints, I came across issues regarding automatic billing problems with Register.com, which appear to fall under fraud and deceptive business practices.

In fact, all of the above falls under fraudulent and deceptive business practices.

I ask you to either: begin compensation at once for all monies generated from the use of my domains, or to cease and desist immediately from using my domains as free advertising for register.com and from selling advertising space on my domains!

Furthermore, the loss of service that occurred last week has brought to light the painful reality that Register.com is not being truthful in your advertising campaigns. Your apparent lack of concern about the domino effect your Denial of Service (DOS) attack had on my business is an eye opener. I used to own two stores in NYC and if anything happened to anyone on my premises I was responsible.

I believe Register.com should be responsible to its customers for anything that happens to our online storefronts when something happens to you.

To see that you are doing nothing, saying nothing, and only attempting to save your own business by offering new customers financial incentives is insulting to the very people who have contributed to the success of Register.com.

I anticipate all the issues I have brought to your attention be resolved immediately. Please note I am sending this email as an OPEN LETTER that I am making available to other Register.com customers.

Yours truly,

Kirby Sommers

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Marc David SilverbergJun 30th, 2009 - 04:23:24

My business websites were also used to sell the same items my business was selling. I own a meat company and they are selling meat on my parked website and generating income from my name. I brought this to the attention of Register.com last week but they refused to compensate me for my business website’s income. I am incorporated in the state of Texas and I will be bringing this to attention of the Texas Attorney General next week if I do not receive compensation for my business good name and website. In addition, I also own a bookkeeping company as well as my private domain name is being sold too. It will be time to bring a class action lawsuit if we do not receive funds shortly. I hope I can count on all Register.com customers.

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TPJul 9th, 2009 - 16:48:32

Register.com has had another outage, related to an email upgrade, that has lasted for 10 days. I have had to call customer service 5 times, site on hold for over 2 hours, and make 10 inquiries over the web. At this moment, I still do not have email available and it is costing me greatly. The last contact that I made with the company was this morning and they are still not able to tell me when my email will be back online. They really don't seem to take care at all.

BTW - I was also told that the issue I had to wait so long to speak to someone was due the holiday weekend and the backlog of calls. When I got on the phone with someone I found out that they were in Canada. I am not sure, but I don't think they celebrate Independence Day with the United States. Sounded like a weak excuse to me.

In all, I couldn't be more disappointed with the technical service, customer service or resolution process. I paid for the service and they should have to compensate me for the lost time, business, and credibility that I am suffering due to their poorly executed email upgrade. It is great to think that they are expanding their business at the expense of mine.

I would love to find a way to sue this organization.

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