GoDaddy Hosting Lays Down for MySpace.com: Looking Out or Brown Nosing?

January 28, 2007 by
Nikki Freeman  
Nikki Freeman
Nikki Freeman
  • Published Content: 93
  • Total Views: 454,905
  • Fans: 40
View Profile | Follow | Add to Favorites
Single page
Font Size
Read comments (7)
More topics
Myspace.com  |  Godaddy  |  Godaddy.Com  |  Koobface  |  Comment  |  Cnet

MySpace Against the World

GoDaddy recently dropped one of their hosting customers because MySpace said so...Well, that's the word anyway. Apparently Seclists.org, which hosts some 250,000 pages of mailing list archives and other resources, had multiple
MySpace names, passwords and personal info in their archives, online and readily available. The site was hosted by GoDaddy.com. MySpace contacted GoDaddy.com and asked that the site be shut down, or at least take the information off the web. Can you blame MySpace.com for protecting their users? You and me in fact!

Well, needless to say GoDaddy took the site offline, right away! They claim that they tried to contact the company, to warn them or to request they take this information off the site, but didn't receive any notice from them. Acting fast is an understatement, but for the individuals who's personal info was listed online, I don't think it could have been fast enough.

GoDaddy.com has a 24 hour abuse system, that removes any illegal or child porn information as soon as possible. According to GoDaddy's general counsel, Christina Jones,

"We're not here to allow people to put illegal content on the Internet," she said. "We take this safety and the security of the Internet very seriously...We take our responsibility pretty seriously. We're the largest registrar in the world."

They are, they offer great prices, great service and incredible features for hosting and domain services. But, this issue has still come to a head regarding freedom of speech, which they're getting some pretty hard hits about. But, what about Seclists.org obligation to making sure OUR personal info doesn't get blasted all over their website for public use? No comment there, eh?

Page: 1 2 Next »
 Print   Save Read comments (7)   Next piece
Related Video
   
RelatedRecommendedFeaturedMore By This Source
Hosting a Poker Party
Hosting your own poker party is a great way to get together with friends for a little fun, and who knows, you might just win!
By Boricua  |  Published 9/23/2006  |  Read more »
Web Hosting for Non-Geeks
An easy-to-understand guide to the basics of Web hosting, covering everything from the basics for personal Websites to the more advanced offerings for business hosting.
By Shirley Gregory  |  Published 10/17/2006  |  Read more »
Web Hosting Terms Explained
This article explains bandwidth, disk space, and file hosting. These terms are commonly used and it is good to know the meanings of them.
By Hykra  |  Published 6/23/2006  |  Read more »
Free or Affordable Web Hosting Online
It is difficult to find free web hosting that offers great technical support and no pop-up banners or advertisting. In perusing the Internet, here are some great ones.
By Shirlene Alusa-Brown  |  Published 6/15/2006  |  Read more »
Review of Freewebs Web Hosting
There are many free web hosting services out there today. Some offer you long drawn out web addresses while others simple and short.
By Laura Hickey  |  Published 8/9/2005  |  Read more »
Doteasy Domain Name Registration & Hosting Service
Doteasy provides a low-cost, easy to use domain registration and web hosting service for basic websites. For more advanced users, Doteasy supplies options to upgrade the hosting to allow for scripting support and more web space.
By Tim Graham  |  Published 7/14/2005  |  Read more »
Related information
ResourcesTakeawaysDid You Know
  • CNET Article
 
Comments 1 - 7 of 7  
Comments
Type in Your Comments Below

Nikki, You state above: "If there was a more intelligent way of handling this...Please, tell me. Because I cannot imagine an intelligent response that wouldn't involve taking the site off the web." Okay, try this one: How about MySpace try to contact SecLists.Org to request the post be deleted so that the entire site doesn't have to go down? His contact info is publicly available right there on the website. They tried exactly zero times to contact Mr. Lyon, and instead went straight to the registrar. They didn't even contact his upstream ISP/hosting company, who obviously has good contact info for him since he pays his bills every month. Or, maybe GoDaddy could give him more than 52 seconds to respond to the VM before they shut the domain down, or maybe mention what the cause for the shutdown is, or, once he DID contact them, maybe not tell him it's going to be several days before he can expect a response to even tell him WHY the site was suspended so that he could take the cont
Add a Comment

Posted on 02/02/2007 at 8:02:00 AM

Really? Sounds like a bunch of BS to me...Exactly which sites are still have this information up? Speculation? Blatant lie? You don't know what MySpace did to further extend the security measures, the only part we read about was the shutting down of Seclists.org. Maybe they did contact the users and change their passwords. We can definitely agree that one other fact remains in all of this: There haven't been any new headline stories about MySpace users having their sites hacked. Obviously they've done something right.
Add a Comment

Posted on 01/31/2007 at 12:01:00 PM

Its worth clarifying with respect to the different timeframes mentioned in the post below that those passwords were disclosed on that mailing list on Jan 15th and were (and still are) widely available on a number of sites. MySpace had GoDaddy shut down SecLists on Jan 24th.
Add a Comment

Posted on 01/29/2007 at 8:01:00 PM

1. Myspace wasn't protecting anyone by shutting down seclists. These passwords have been compromised. Taking them off this website doesn't put the cat back in bag. They need to invalidate all of them and inform the users via email and give them a process for getting back into their accounts. That whole process can be automated in a few hours starting from scratch. Myspace is protecting their public image here, not anyone's security. 2. GoDaddy could have given the administrator of seclists an opportunity to remove the content before shutting the site down. If they were going to shut it down, they could have provided telephone contact information for their abuse department, and they could have immediately informed seclists WHY they were turning it off. Many hours passed between the time when GoDaddy contacted seclists to inform them that they were shutting the site down and the time when Godaddy explained why and agreed to discuss it. That is extremely irresponsible.
Add a Comment

Posted on 01/29/2007 at 8:01:00 PM

Because they aren't as popular or powerful as MySpace? Because poor them, they didn't have the resources to realize that there was ILLEGAL info on their site? If there was a more intelligent way of handling this...Please, tell me. Because I cannot imagine an intelligent response that wouldn't involve taking the site off the web.
Add a Comment

Posted on 01/29/2007 at 6:01:00 PM

They're not going to take down just any site they wish. That is an irrational and extremist in theory at the least. Granted, taking the entire site of the web as quick as they did was rash. But, can we not agree that this is a unique situation? MySpace has the personal information of people all over the World, mostly teenagers...I think a rash response to this security breach was in order. They took down a site because they had the personal and highly secure information from a website that everyone and their brother uses. Meaning, the secure information on this site, is sensitive. I don't understand why it is GoDaddy and MySpace who are at fault, when THEY are the ones who discovered this information was leaked onto Seclists!! MySpace doesn't have adequate security, yet they found information on someone else's website before the owners even knew about it? Why is it, that Seclists.org is played out as some kind of victim in this situation? Because they aren't as popular or powerful as M
Add a Comment

Posted on 01/29/2007 at 6:01:00 PM

Screw Seclists.com, you should higher an internet security employee from MySpace to make sure you don't post our personal, highly secure information on your website. MySpace security personnel could certainly get all the "higher-ing" they can get. Maybe if they had adequate security in the first place they wouldn't need a scapegoat and a cat's paw. GoDaddy might have concerns with the legality of material registered with it, however not working with their customers (who are often victims of abuse themselves) is not exactly constructive and can pose as a DoS threat in and of itself. Hackers who target sites registered with GoDaddy can now work much more effectively than ever because GoDaddy will help the hacker take down any site they wish. Cooperating with the customer in a reasonable way would be a more intelligent way of handling a problem like this.
Add a Comment

Posted on 01/29/2007 at 1:01:00 PM

Comments 1 - 7 of 7 

Have more to say?
Become a Source on AC

Most Comments Today