Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Federal Government Inadvertently Deleted Ca.Gov

Posted by samzenpus on from the did-you-need-that dept.

An anonymous reader writes "A Network World reader whose brother works for a California state agency forwarded me an e-mail alert that his brother received: "The Department of Technology Services (DTS) has notified us that the Federal Government inadvertently deleted the CA.GOV domain. As the evening progresses you may experience an impact in your ability to access some Web sites and exchange e-mail. DTS is working with their federal counterparts to restore service as quickly as possible but service may not be restored until tomorrow morning.""

42 of 195 comments (clear)

  1. behind the scenes by cez · · Score: 5, Funny

    "We don't for sure have the whole picture, but as we understand it, there was some event at the Transportation Authority of Marin Country where their site got hacked," Hanacek told me this afternoon. Traffic was being redirected from that site to one featuring pornography.

    A department within the U.S. General Services Administration in Washington oversees and polices the .gov domain.

    "The federal government saw this incorrect use of ca.gov and they made a change at a much more global level than probably was necessary and it started taking down all of our ca.gov domain," says Hanacek. "That impacted Web access and e-mail services."


    Damn... all this because someone pointed their IP surveillance camera at the nude beach across the street.

    --
    Walk with Music;
    1. Re:behind the scenes by MindStalker · · Score: 3, Funny

      "We're from the government we're here to help!"

  2. just like katrina by User+956 · · Score: 4, Funny

    The Department of Technology Services (DTS) has notified us that the Federal Government inadvertently deleted the CA.GOV domain.

    That's not a mistake, someone just put FEMA's earthquake-recovery plan into action a little bit early.

    --
    The theory of relativity doesn't work right in Arkansas.
    1. Re:just like katrina by Enlightenment · · Score: 5, Funny

      That's not recovery. That's acceptance.

    2. Re:just like katrina by Seumas · · Score: 5, Funny

      Were the administrators responsible for this also graduates of Oral Roberts University? They're everywhere else in government . . .

    3. Re:just like katrina by ScrewMaster · · Score: 4, Funny

      Deleting CA.GOV? I didn't realize that FEMA was planning was to actually erase Arnold Schwarzenegger.

      --
      The higher the technology, the sharper that two-edged sword.
  3. Simple to fix? by jfroot · · Score: 3, Informative

    Can they not just:

    # scp bkuser@backupserver:/etc/bind/zones/gov.ca.zonefile /etc/bind/zones
    # service named reload

    voila!

    1. Re:Simple to fix? by cez · · Score: 2, Insightful

      doesn't sound like they deleted it to me, more like they routed it to nowhere, and propagated that route across the network and root DNS servers...

      --
      Walk with Music;
    2. Re:Simple to fix? by Achromatic1978 · · Score: 4, Informative

      How do you "route" a domain name? Sure you can point the authoritive NS's to some black hole, but that's easily enough reversed. DNS changes don't 'propagate' upstream. They can be cached downstream, but nothing irrevocable, and there's no route to propagate. "ca.gov" is not a AS network.

    3. Re:Simple to fix? by ObsessiveMathsFreak · · Score: 2, Funny

      ssh: backupserver: Name or service not known
      lost connection

      --
      May the Maths Be with you!
  4. In related news... by dws90 · · Score: 5, Funny

    Shortly after this story broke, it was announced that Federal Offices were raided by an Austrian Cyborg who repeatedly shouted "My domain will be back!". The identity of the intruder is currently under investigation.

  5. Ooops. by conlaw · · Score: 5, Funny

    At least the Feds don't have to worry about Iraq, Iran, et al. for the next few days. They've probably upset The Terminator and, as we all know, he'll be back.

  6. Terrorists .... by snoggeramus · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Terrorists we can handle. What really scares is an attack of the stupids.

    1. Re:Terrorists .... by Thaelon · · Score: 2, Informative

      The term you're looking for is weaponized stupidity. Remember it. Use it. Enjoy it.

      --

      Question everything

    2. Re:Terrorists .... by serge587 · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Humanity has been under siege since its inception.

  7. Why wait? by amccaf1 · · Score: 5, Funny

    I see the federal government isn't waiting around for the San Andreas Fault do to its work... they're cutting California free now!

    --
    "Flag on the moon. How did it get there?"
    1. Re:Why wait? by PPH · · Score: 2, Funny

      After the 'Big One', everything east of the San Andreas fault is going to slide into the Atlantic Ocean.

      --
      Have gnu, will travel.
  8. Why not just use the .ca TLD? by nebaz · · Score: 5, Funny

    It's not like anyone else it using it?

    --
    Rhymes that keep their secrets will unfold behind the clouds.There upon the rainbow is the answer to a neverending story
    1. Re:Why not just use the .ca TLD? by tehSpork · · Score: 3, Funny

      Very good idea! In fact why don't we hand .org to Oregon while we're at it, surely they will give that TLD much better use than the legions of lackluster sites infesting that TLD.

    2. Re:Why not just use the .ca TLD? by pembo13 · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Why not use ca.us ?

      --
      "Thanks for all the money you paid to us. We've used it to buy off ISO among other things" -Microsoft
    3. Re:Why not just use the .ca TLD? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

      It was considered. Unfortunately, with the poor state of the American dollar, it would cost just too much for California to register a Canadian domain name.

    4. Re:Why not just use the .ca TLD? by General+Wesc · · Score: 2, Funny

      We need a new mod option: -1 Whoosh! ;-)

    5. Re:Why not just use the .ca TLD? by patio11 · · Score: 2, Funny

      Plus, the only vowel allowed in Canadian domain names is A, eh?

      --
      Help poke pirates in the eyepatch, arr.
  9. If only... by feepness · · Score: 4, Insightful

    If only these idiots were running more of my life.

    1. Re:If only... by feepness · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Microsoft doesn't put me in jail if I don't buy their product.

  10. Re:Sorry by Dachannien · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Never attribute to malice what can be attributed to stupidity.

  11. What REALLY happened by antifoidulus · · Score: 3, Funny

    Dick Cheney didn't want anyone to know that California actually exists(and if people cannot know about it, then their congressmen go away) so he arbitrarily declared it to be top secret.

    --
    Monstar L
    1. Re:What REALLY happened by fm6 · · Score: 2, Funny

      What you just reported is also top secret. That makes you a spy. Please wait for the DHS agents to come and arrest you.

  12. Re:Sorry by speedingant · · Score: 2, Funny

    Then you won't have any problems not believing that the Terminator did it, and he's slowly deleting the entire internet. Think about it in a positive light, go play frisbee or something.

  13. Re:Sorry by statemachine · · Score: 4, Informative

    It's easy to delete a domain. Delete the zone file on the primary name server and reload the daemon. That's only two steps, and it would really ruin your day if you didn't keep a backup on hand. Why would you think it's not hard to do?

  14. Re:I sense a disturbance in the Force... by WillAffleckUW · · Score: 2, Funny

    Your pitiful Green State shall not stop the Power of the Red Bushie side of the Force!

    Soon you shall feel the might of this fully operational Iraq Embassy!

    --
    -- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
  15. No wonder! by sweet+'n+sour · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I was attempting to do some research at the California DMV web site yesterday and kept getting 404's. Google cache to the rescue. Maybe they can rebuild from that alone!

  16. OOPS! I've entered CA.ORG by mistake by zukinux · · Score: 3, Funny

    but it kind of looked the same. California, drug addict site, what's the difference?

    --
    Read and Comment at my BLOG
    !!!
  17. Re:Sorry by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    How do you accidently delete an entire domain?

    You're grossly over-estimating the competence of the federal government. The only thing surprising about this is that they didn't delete the entire .gov domain.

  18. When you hire the Eraser (1996) by infonography · · Score: 4, Funny

    what did you think would happen?

    --
    Sorry about the writing. Robot fingers, you know? Cliff Steele in DOOM PATROL #23
  19. It's back... by rdwald · · Score: 2, Informative

    Is it just me, or does http://www.ca.gov/ still work? I mean, I just went there and got a page reading "Welcome to the State of California." I guess this problem's already been resolved.

  20. Re:Actually this is a news leak by emurphy42 · · Score: 3, Funny

    "As for immigration, solving that came at a heavy cost, and I personally regret the loss of California. However, the new Mexifornian economy is strong and El Presidente Schwarzenegger is doing a great job."

  21. Re:Sorry by untaken_name · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Malice gets you fired, while stupidity gets excused and forgiven. Which would you prefer your actions to be seen as?

    --
    http://xkcd.com/386/
  22. Re:who really cares, when does ca.mx go live? by Bill,+Shooter+of+Bul · · Score: 3, Funny

    Well, the northern part is, but the southern part never was.

    --
    Well.. maybe. Or Maybe not. But Definitely not sort of.
  23. Blame Canada by knuth · · Score: 3, Funny

    Maybe they got confused and thought Canadians wre infiltrating the U.S. federal government. What if, horrors, they were separatist Freedom Canadians?

  24. Re:Sorry by hawks5999 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    any sufficiently advanced stupidity is indistinguishable from malice.

  25. States shouldn't be using .gov by base3 · · Score: 2, Insightful

    California should be using state.ca.us anyway--then they wouldn't have had a problem. .gov is intended for the U.S. federal government.

    --
    One CPU cycle wasted on digital restrictions management is ONE TOO MANY.