As announced two weeks ago, BitWise 1.0.2 was scheduled for release on July 2nd (my birthday!). Some of you may have noticed that July 2nd has come and gone, and 1.0.2 isn't out. There's a very good reason.
On Thursday, July 1st, through the night and into the morning we were experiencing some severe slowdowns and connection anomalies. Our upstream provider switched off the IP address to our main web server, which, of course, caused services to be inaccessible. The reason, we found out after some inquiries, was that we were the target of a DOS attack, which apparently was throwing terabytes of data towards one IP address. Cleaning up after this attack became a high priority for us, and we immediately moved the server to a new IP address. DNS entries had to be updated, some SSL configurations had to be modified, and, of course, there was general chaos as the upstream provider continued to monitor the situation and we attempted to work out a solution to get services back online as soon as possible.
At the time, we didn't know who would have targeted this server, nor did we have any idea whether to expect another attack. As such, it did not seem wise to proceed with the BitWise release, because it would be really bad to have news bits about new versions hit an unavailable website (or someone not reaching the site because it had a new IP address). Therefore, the release was pushed back into next week so that we could monitor the situation and release after things were fully operational again.
We have since learned from one of our clients that the attack was directed towards him (not him, specifically, but a group he is involved in) via IRC, at not only our server but 3 others. The best news of all is that someone claimed responsibility for the attacks, and our client knows his real-life identity well enough to locate him and turn him in to both the authorities and our upstream provider (who very much would like to get to know him better).
While we don't offer IRC hosting anymore, this particular individual had been a client of ours from years and years ago and was actually the only IRC hosting client left. We have given up IRC hosting (a wise move in any event) altogether--a new policy that was well received by the client given the grief it caused. It's interesting that our last major "incident" in February also was related to IRC. There's definitely a moral here somewhere...
Since I wasn't dealing with a release, I actually got to enjoy my birthday. Most of the 1st (after we decided not to release), and then most of the 2nd (my actual birthday), was spent rearranging here and making room for my new "mega-desk" which will house all of the PCs needed for BitWise development. It should be a nice arrangement once everything is settled and I quit forgetting where I put things. Most of the major tasks are done, but I still have lots of little things to relocate. At least there's a nice 3 day weekend now, I'll just extend my break a little longer. Nothing like a nice DOS attack to give you a sudden 4 day weekend. :) That's not an invitation for more DOS attacks, just a comment on how sometimes something good comes out of something not so good. :)
Next week we'll get this BitWise release rolled out, and also hopefully unveil the new OxONet web site (and pricing plans), and also begin the cross-promotions that will allow businesses to save on hosting and IM through our unique OxONet/BitWise alliance. But that will be the subject for another post, this one has already taken me plenty late into the night...
I'd just like to add that this has no connection to the mention of a "hacker's challenge" in my last post. Like many things it life, it was only a fascinating coincidence.