Ongoing DDoS attack - Authorize.net

[tappel]

This has been a rough few days for me. I noticed problems beginning last Saturday...

Authorize.net (http://www.authorizenet.com) (see the sidebar notice)

I guess no one is immune.

Tom

[Matt]

Hi Tom,

This is a big issue. I received the following from Authorize.net yesterday evening:
Status
Authorize.Net continues to experience intermittent DDoS attacks. Our system engineers have successfully minimized the impact of each attack and have quickly restored services to affected merchants. At this time, Authorize.Net is not currently experiencing any material interruptions.

I'd like to emphasize "at this time." This attack has been ongoing since this past weekend. It seems that with as large a customer base as Authorize.net hase and the nature of the business that there would be sufficient cause to have people working on this issue 24x7 to get it resolved. What is scary is that Authorize.net may have done that and STILL experienced this incredible downtime. The most reasonable suggestion I have heard is merchants obtaining a backup gateway account.

I have no idea of the specifics of the DDoS attack and am sure more knowledgable people than me were working on this issue, but I still find it incredible that this outage lasted for so long. -Matt

[dank]

I guess no one is immune.
Fortunately, or unfortunatley, depending on how you look at it, I am. :\ My transactions are well down this month (via Authorize.net), but that's only continuing a year-long trend.

Dan

[tappel]

The problems seem to have been resolved (see below). I see Matt's point, though. I *never* expected such sustained downtime from Authorize.net. In fairness, I've been with Authorize.net since January of this year and this is the first significant problem. Before that, I was using 2Checkout, and they were a constant headache for me.

Tom

Update on DDoS Attacks Against Authorize.Net
September 24, 2004 1:30 PM PDT

We are pleased to inform you that Authorize.Net has successfully installed industry leading solutions designed to negate the impact of distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks. These installations are successfully thwarting a current and sustained attack with no DDoS-related degradation to our service whatsoever. With these new installations, Authorize.Net has technologies in place that rival those of the largest e-commerce, trading and portal Web sites. Although there is no way to predict the possibility or severity of future attacks, we are optimistic that you will see little to no impact to service availability as a result of potential future DDoS attacks of this magnitude.
[...]

[dank]

negate the impact of distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks.
And here I thought all this time DDoS stood for Dan's Denial of Sales. %)

Dan

[Nancjo]

I too, use Authorize.net, did not have a problem when they started having problems with the DDoS attacks, but now that they have put in their new security. I am having all kinds of problems. No transactions are going through, I am having to manually process them all. I have sent an email to futurequest since they need some information about trace route said they needed my cache cleared, refresh DNS, and some other things....NONE of which I understand.

Here is to hoping someone will reply fairly fast with my questions and concerns.

Nancy Jo

[Matt]

Hi Nancy,

I haven't had a whole lot of success in the past w/ e-mail. I'd recommend calling Authorize.net instead. There may be a long hold due to recent events, but still probably better than the e-mail delays you are sure to experience. -Matt

[Terra]

To clarify:

Nancjo: I have sent an email to futurequest

Nancjo: Here is to hoping someone will reply fairly fast with my questions and concerns.

Matt: I haven't had a whole lot of success in the past w/ e-mail.

If one did not read the two posts in their entirety, Matt's statement could be misinterpreted... If they did not connect the next sentence:
I'd recommend calling Authorize.net instead.
and disassociate the original destination of Nancjo's emailed support request which was going to us and not Authorize.net...

To be forthright, I had personally taken care of Nancjo's email and completed all of Authorize.net's requests in a matter of minutes... :)

--
Terra
--context, context, context--
FutureQuest

[Nancjo]

yes, terra did indeed reply to my email within a matter of minutes and I am very grateful for that...thank you thank you thankyou.

As far as Matts response...he is indeed right about having to call Authorize.net, I only wish Authorize.net was as fast at taking care of problems and concerns as futurequest.....thanks again terra....you're a doll

Nancy JO

[Matt]

:bow: My humble apologies, I misunderstood that a reply was pending from Authorize.net. Yes, continue sending those e-mails to FQ, but CALL Authorize.net :o

I'm interested to know if Authorize.net's new "defense system" mistakes any legitimate transactions as attempted attacks. So please post here if you suspect this. -Matt