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We are seeing continued DDoS attacks against our infrastructure
- pyrophane 5y agoI'm actually seeing the service coming back online for me now. Not ideal because I am actually doing some fairly urgent stuff over email this afternoon, but I am satisfied with the response from Fastmail. They acknowledge the issue quickly, and provided some specifics shortly after that. The total amount of time the service was unavailable for me was under 2 hours.
- dboreham 5y agoFwiw every time there's been a "fastmail down" post here over the past few weeks, my mailbox has worked just fine.
- numbsafari 5y agoSame here. Knock on wood… And, as a customer, I’ll stand by their efforts not to capitulate.
- tpmx 5y agoWFM, at least right now. Sending an email from gmail to fastmail took a bit longer (~25 seconds) than usual, but it got there. The web interface is fast.
- 1cvmask 5y agoDDoS attacks are oftentimes a cover for other cyberattacks. While IT teams are dealing with the DDoS attack, the main hack is going on silently in the background hidden by the "noise".
- fancy_pantser 5y agoDo you have a source for how "oftentimes" in your assertion?
- 1cvmask 5y agoOftentimes as in the definition of frequently or in many instances. There are no stats of it being anywhere near a majority though. It is a classic subterfuge trick. Among the reasons cybercriminals love DDoS: 2) It gives them a convenient smokescreen. Cybercriminals like to create confusion - and they sometimes turn to DDoS attacks to distract and misdirect resource-deprived organizations from their primary goal: to pillage sensitive data. DDoS attacks are optimal subterfuge because they create noise and chaos that will attract the brunt of attention from your IT staff, leaving wide open the opportunity for your foes to simultaneously infiltrate your network and mask data exfiltration. 3) It can be the digital pretext to a physical attack. Sometimes a DDoS attack is merely a means to an end. Earlier this week our SpiderLabs team revealed a web-based vulnerability in a popular brand of printers that could result in denial-of-service attacks. Our researchers theorized that attackers could launch the printer attack and show up at the target organization pretending to be the "technician" called to fix the problem. This impersonation could net them direct physical access to IT resources that they might never have been able to access remotely.
- b1476 5y agoOddly I’m still getting notifications for new mail but unable to download the content.
- katsura 5y agoSame for me. I get notifications, but neither the mobile app not the website works.
- MichaelVangard 5y ago"We are seeing continued DDoS attacks against our infrastructure and are working with our network provider on mitigation strategies. Our team are working hard to provide stability." https://www.fastmailstatus.com https://www.fastmailstatus.com
- ccvannorman 5y agoSame story as last week. Who would want to destroy Fastmail? As a user this is extremely inconvenient.
- macintux 5y agoRansom, I'd assume. Thanks, Bitcoin, for making digital crime profitable.
- devmunchies 5y agoIt’s a decentralized bounty system. If your company can’t afford a reasonable bounty system, one will be provided for you.
- duckmysick 5y agoHow would a bounty system help with DDoS attacks?
- memeboop 5y agoAs a paying customer, this is starting to get irritating. Dumping them for another email provider doesn't seem like the right solution though, as this could happen to any provider. On the other hand, these are the situations that I am paying them for, to take care of for me, so that I don't have to administer my own email server.
- mmcclimon 5y agoFor what it's worth: as a Fastmail employee, it's also extremely irritating for us!
- warpech 5y agoSpeaking as a happy customer for many years: Thank you and hold on!
- newsbinator 5y ago
- humps 5y agoMy first question was: "Why on earth would anyone target Fastmail?" And to answer my own question, it seems a lot of email providers are in the firing line at the moment - https://therecord.media/ddos-attacks-hit-multiple-email-providers/ https://therecord.media/ddos-attacks-hit-multiple-email-prov...
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- tyingq 5y agoThis bit is interesting: "Victims were targeted with a DDoS attack, and an email was later sent to the organizations, asking for a 0.06 BTC (~$4,000) ransom demand." Four thousand dollars. I guess they were trying to shoot low in hopes of a quick payment? Also, Runbox posted a copy of the ransom email: https://blog.runbox.com/2021/10/runbox-is-under-attack-by-extortionists/ https://blog.runbox.com/2021/10/runbox-is-under-attack-by-ex...
- Waterluvian 5y agoTest their response? Warm them up to the idea of capitulation?
- willcipriano 5y agoThis week: "Give me $50 or I break the windows in this place!" Next week: "Give me $75 or I break the windows in this place!"
- schleck8 5y ago"Bitcoin is not used for ransomware and other cyber crime, it's traceable" - some crypto fans on social media
- howdydoo 5y agoWould you get rid of your iPhone if you found out criminals used Apple gift cards?
- LeoPanthera 5y agoStill getting mail over IMAP just fine here. Edit: Spoke too soon. Getting errors now.
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- Icathian 5y agoCan't access my website hosted there, and my notes synced using webdav pointed to files there also seem to be unavailable. Bummer. Can't really blame them, though, not much you can do with cannons pointed at you. I'm sure they'll be back up soon.
- tony101 5y agoProtonMail managed to figure it out after the DDoS attack they faced 5 years ago: https://protonmail.com/support/knowledge-base/email-ddos-protection/ https://protonmail.com/support/knowledge-base/email-ddos-pro...
- marco1 5y agoTheir response from a few days ago, including mentions of similar services affected, e.g. Mailbox.org and Posteo: https://fastmail.blog/company/fastmail-fights-off-ransom-cyberattack/ https://fastmail.blog/company/fastmail-fights-off-ransom-cyb...
- marco1 5y agoBy the way, is the “yet” what is regarded as “editorialized”? There’s hardly any “original title”, apart from frequently changing status updates in the body. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29058685 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29058685
- prostanac 5y agoI believe it was the “yet again”, which implies that it is down frequently. Personally this is the first time I see it down, even though I heard that I had another incident recently.
- marco1 5y agoThanks. It has indeed been down multiple times recently, both for active DDoS and for maintenance in response. A week ago, there was a post titled “Fastmail is having problems again”, so today, “yet again” seemed adequate: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28963609 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28963609
- throwawaysea 5y agoRelated discussion from 9 days ago: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28952954 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28952954
- melomac 5y agoFastmail is great at reacting and transparently informing users. This is something I'd love to see "normalized" so users could efficiently assess service providers reliability.
- dang 5y agoRecent and related: Fastmail, Runbox, and Posteo under DDoS extortion attack - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28968046 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28968046 - Oct 2021 (123 comments) Fastmail is having problems again - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28963609 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28963609 - Oct 2021 (132 comments) We're seeing an ongoing attack against our primary network provider - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28952954 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28952954 - Oct 2021 (87 comments)