Sophos DNS snafu creates update problems

Domain name system problems left some users of Sophos unable to get security updates on Friday. The same issue, blamed on a mistake by one of the security firm's service providers rather than hostile action, left many surfers unable to access its main sophos.com website. Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant at Sophos, …

[Anonymous Coward]

Who needs hackers

when you can rely on service providers ?

[Gordon Fecyk]

Classic "SPA," or "Service Provider Attack"

The largest SPA I remember was the AT&T @home snafu, where millions of e-mail addresses were lost.

Nice to see Sophos isn't immune to their own people. Though I wonder how soon the "attack" was really reported. Doesn't Sophos ask their customers to update their anti-virus software every hour?!

[Vince]

Situation Normal then

I can't imagine it matters, last I checked Sophos couldn't spot a virus or anything of that ilk if it tried. Status usual.

[Martin Edwards]

UK site unaffected?

I can't access either the .com or the .co.uk. Maybe that's just a freak coincidence at my end!

[Anonymous Coward]

I'd like to know

Why their AV tries to fetch updates by a domain name rather than an IP address.

If they had made it update by using IP addresses this wouldn't have been such a serious problem.

[Alex]

@Situation Normal then

Oh look, another Norton Anti-Virus User!

[schmiddi]

Sophos-DNS isn't hosted externally

It's somewhat nice reading that they blame an external provider for their DNS-issues - according to WHOIS they run their own DNS-servers, and a tracert to one of them proves this:

Tracing route to ns4.sophos.com [213.31.172.25]

over a maximum of 30 hops:

1 <1 ms <1 ms <1 ms BLANKED OUT

2 1 ms <1 ms <1 ms BLANKED OUT

3 8 ms 8 ms 7 ms BLANKED OUT

4 8 ms 7 ms 8 ms BLANKED OUT

5 11 ms 11 ms 10 ms BLANKED OUT

6 11 ms 11 ms 11 ms BLANKED OUT

7 12 ms 12 ms 12 ms BLANKED OUT

8 12 ms 12 ms 12 ms t2c2-ge12-0-0.de-fra.eu.bt.net [166.49.172.101]

9 12 ms 11 ms 12 ms t2a4-prc2.de-fra.eu.bt.net [166.49.172.52]

10 19 ms 18 ms 19 ms frankfurt55.de.eqip.net [166.49.147.174]

11 27 ms 26 ms 26 ms 195.90.66.74

12 27 ms 28 ms 27 ms 195.206.65.37

13 30 ms 31 ms 30 ms sophos-abingdon.gb.eqip.net [213.31.192.130]

14 32 ms 32 ms 32 ms ns4.sophos.com [213.31.172.25]

15 32 ms 31 ms 33 ms ns4.sophos.com [213.31.172.25]

Trace complete.

I assume that the second nameserver is also being maintained by Sophos, directly, but due to requirements of DNS-servers having to sit in different IP-address-segements this one doesn't resolve directly into Sophos HQ, naturally.

[Max Lock]

Re- I'd like to know

Domain names you keep as long as you want to re-register them, where as IP addresses may change if you move service provider. The Domain name should therefore remains a constant.

Plus, IPv6 will eventually arrive making domain name far more important than they are under IPv4, as the IPv4's 12 numeric digits are easier to recall than the IPv6's 32 digit hex format.

Regards

Max Gabriel Lock

[Matt]

Is it ...... ?

Is it 'cos their product is shit ?

[Anonymous Coward]

LO Matt ... s'cuse the pun but...

Is it 'cause they is Hakt?

Anyway - my 2d = DNS - Does Not Synchronise - LMAO