Microsoft swats flies with a nuclear missile and takes out the entirety of noip

[Masark]

If you're wondering why you can't get at your dynamic DNS domain today, here's why.

Basically all of the noip dynamic DNS service has been taken out by Microsoft, aided by a judge who probably can't spell DNS, let alone have an idea what is actually being seized.

No alert, no discussion, just wander right in and grab your domains out from under you.

https://www.noip.com/blog/2014/06/30...soft-takedown/

[Therealmagoo]

what did they do to get taken down ?

[Masark]

what did they do to get taken down ?

Microsoft is claiming that some noip domains are used by malware authors. Though they appear not to have bothered informing noip of this and instead walked straight into a random court in Nevada and got the judge to swipe the domains for them.

[Tradewind]

mixed feelings.

On one side, it's pretty brazen, heavy handed and poorly planned. On the other, this has been going on for a long ass time and noip/vital has been completely incapable of doing anything about it.

Sort of a "good intentions/shit implementation" thing to me.

[Masark]

on the other, this has been going on for a long ass time and noip/vital has been completely incapable of doing anything about it.

This is like going "Well, the city of New York has been incapable of wiping out crime there, so let's evict everyone in the entire city for a few weeks."

[Tradewind]

This is like going "Well, the city of New York has been incapable of wiping out crime there, so let's evict everyone in the entire city for a few weeks."

If the city of new york is fighting unmitigated crime with only a handful of underequipped staff members, then sometimes it's necessary to call in the national guard.

[Masark]

If the city of new york is fighting unmitigated crime with only a handful of underequipped staff members, then sometimes it's necessary to call in the national guard.

It's still ridiculously overbroad and causing an unreasonable amount of collateral damage.

And the root cause of the issue remains microsoft's insecure crap allowing this malware to flourish.

[Tradewind]

It's still ridiculously overbroad and causing an unreasonable amount of collateral damage.

I never said it was the best thing to happen, I even said it was heavy handed and poorly planned. But if you can't get your shit together it's hardly surprising when people move on their own to protect their interests.

[Deleted]

Neighbours dog shit's on your lawn once, you clear it up and warn the owners.
Does it again, you get the owners to clean it up, Again you warn them.
if it continues to shit in on your lawn, you take matters into your own hands.

All Microsoft have done is is to take matters into their own hands after (probably) warning noip multiple times to get their shit together about the hosting of malware on exploited systems being given static location that people can use to infect others by the service they offer.

is it overkill ? yes probably is, but if it helps to stem the torrent of malware infections then it is worth it.

[Tradewind]

Not just MS either, OpenDNS and Cisco, probably others.

noip's excuse is that they only have 14 staffers...well...guess what, if 14 isn't enough to deal with the problem, you get more. Can't get more? Then perhaps you shouldn't be in this game.

[Charge me Doctor]

I haven't noticed anything, lololololol. I'm totally with MS here, they did the right thing

[Deleted]

mixed feelings.

On one side, it's pretty brazen, heavy handed and poorly planned. On the other, this has been going on for a long ass time and noip/vital has been completely incapable of doing anything about it.

Sort of a "good intentions/shit implementation" thing to me.

even supposing this is so, why the fuck is Microsoft involved?.
IF Microsoft can hold noip liable like that can i start seizing their PCs? after all people are writing malware on them and microsoft has been totaly unable to stop them.

[Deleted]

Then perhaps you shouldn't be in this game.

Well if you want to go take the low road; Microsoft has 125,000 employees, their software is bug ridden and insecure crap much of the time, it takes them weeks or months to fix issues and release insane amount of patches considering the platform ships with nothing more than the basics and their own AV/Spyware application is almost always the worst on AV tests.

Perhaps they shouldn't be in the game.

[Ravenblade]

So that's why! Although I get what they were trying to do. However it's typically Microsoft. They never really were much into surgical measures. In the end the honest customer has to suffer for the vileness of a few, hey, sounds like Ubisoft! but let's not digress. In any case the only reason I've used it was for convenience. Guess I'll have to look for an alternative and possibly a German one this time. Microsoft will have a hard time shutting that one down.

[Mavick]

Personally pretty glad that something heavy handed is being done about this, because frankly it needed to be done. Coming from an IT person who deals with the crap these domains spew out on a constant basis.

And lol at the people bitching at Microsoft for being unable to stop them through their own software. I'd love to see your faces trying to design software to allow as much interactivity while also dealing with pretty much every hacker in the world also trying to exploit every single thing they can.

[Deleted]

I'd love to see your faces trying to design software to allow as much interactivity while also dealing with pretty much every hacker in the world also trying to exploit every single thing they can.

I don't need to: alternative operating systems already do this. They have as much "interactivity" (or actually more since they give you vastly more control over the OS) and still manage to have a better security track record and design principles than Microsoft.

But then again, that is not what this thread is about. It's about a large company attacking a smaller one and getting a clueless judge to do their dirty work.

[Mavick]

I don't need to: alternative operating systems already do this. They have as much "interactivity" (or actually more since they give you vastly more control over the OS) and still manage to have a better security track record and design principles than Microsoft.

But then again, that is not what this thread is about. It's about a large company attacking a smaller one and getting a clueless judge to do their dirty work.

Alternative operating systems have the luxury of not having to deal with 95% of the shit Microsoft has to. Why do you think nobody really bothers hacking OS X? Because who gives a crap about Apple, or anyone else really, when the vast majority of people use Windows. That's where the money's at, and that's all hackers/malware makers care about.

[Deleted]

That's just because the OS you talk about aren't being targeted nearly as much as Windows. A few years ago Mac users were LOL'ing at the problems Windows faces, now with a bigger market share, OSX is being target more and lo and behold, it too isn't impervious.
The average IT literacy of a Windows and OSX user is a lot lower than those that work with Linux ect as well, meaning they are more likely to fall for phishing ect.

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Alternative operating systems have the luxury of not having to deal with 95% of the shit Microsoft has to. Why do you think nobody really bothers hacking OS X? Because who gives a crap about Apple, or anyone else really, when the vast majority of people use Windows. That's where the money's at, and that's all hackers/malware makers care about.

Plus most companies run Windows, and OLD Windows/old Internet Explorer. I work for one of the biggest employers in Denmark and we all have IE9 on our machines, urg!

[Darthyogi]

This is like going "Well, the city of New York has been incapable of wiping out crime there, so let's evict everyone in the entire city for a few weeks."

Thats a bad thing?

[Deleted]

Personally pretty glad that something heavy handed is being done about this, because frankly it needed to be done.

because Microsoft is a subdivision of the justice department?.