Can't get infected via email if your messages aren't delivered: Seven-hour slowdown hits Symantec cloud filters

Symantec is working to restore its Email Security.cloud service following a major slowdown that has lasted throughout the US morning and into the afternoon. The security software giant said unspecified gremlins knackered its cloud-hosted email filtering service, resulting in email flows slowing to a trickle for customers in …

[Anonymous Coward]

So far, okay.

We've used Symantec for mail filtering for 6+ years. Only 2 issues, that were in the last year this being the second. That said, they are still blocking malware and spam (as well as all our custom rules) and I was able to get ahold of support this morning. So long as this doesn't become a trend, I'm still happy with the service.

The constant notices/status has been good too.

[Anonymous Coward]

Manually?!?

The engineers were *MANUALLY* load balancing?!? W-T-F!

[IGotOut]

Re: Manually?!?

Well if the automated system is causing the issue, then it could be a "get it up and running until we find the exact cause workaround".

I've seen scenario's like this before, you let effectively knock one system off line to allow it to run down and clear a backlog and then bring that back online and knock out another.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Manually?!?

Sure, but that doesn’t sound like load balancing to me!

Maybe they just chose a really bad phrase to use...

[GnuTzu]

Re: Manually?!?

Really? Are they editing /etc/hosts?

[Anonymous Coward]

Symantec.cloud an additional layer of mail filtering and security?

“the Symantec.cloud email service is pitched as .. allowing for emails to be scanned and ”passed on to the NSA “before they even reach the customer's on-prem systems”.

[Anonymous Coward]

Think it was broken again this morning, possibly still broken now...

[Anonymous Coward]

NAV '07 used same approach

Bad memories of NAV '07. Safe and secure by blocking all access to the 'net.

[Steve Cooper]

Twitter was surprisingly quiet on this problem yesterday - drove me mad! Waiting hours for a 2FA email or something before it eventually makes it through. Maybe not many people use it any more - I remember back in the day, Messagelabs was the email filter of choice! Makes me smile how it's still called Messagelabs all over the place and not Symantec.Cloud.

[33rpm]

We got a reply quickly from support via email about the outage. Thoroughly PO'd our contracting office trying to send docs out.

Looks like it still a bit wobbly. https://email.status.symantec.com

[Anonymous Coward]

GBP

Refugees from GBP can make a few shrewd guesses about which bit finally went BANG. And why

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: GBP

qmail ? :-D

[MiguelC]

The company did not respond to a Reg request for comment ...

... on what caused the issue or when it might be fully resolved.

Maybe they didn't get the message

[Throatwarbler Mangrove]

Excellent

This was good news for me as the torrent of spam I receive that Symantec fails to block slowed to a trickle for a day.

[IT Hack]

Caveat emptor

In this case the clue is in the word Symantec.