Slashdot Mirror
Microsoft Settles With No-IP After Malware Takedown
Trailrunner7 (1100399) writes It's been a weird couple of weeks for Microsoft. On June 30 the company announced its latest malware takedown operation, which included a civil law suit against Vitalwerks, a small Nevada hosting provider, and the seizure of nearly two dozen domains the company owned. Now, 10 days later, Microsoft has not only returned all of the seized domains but also has reached a settlement with Vitalwerks that resolves the legal action. Some in the security research community criticized Microsoft harshly for what they saw as heavy handed tactics. Within a few days of the initial takedown and domain seizure Microsoft returned all of the domains to Vitalwerks, which does business as No-IP.com. On Wednesday, the software giant and the hosting provider released a joint statement saying that they had reached a settlement on the legal action. "Microsoft has reviewed the evidence provided by Vitalwerks and enters into the settlement confident that Vitalwerks was not knowingly involved with the subdomains used to support malware. Those spreading the malware abused Vitalwerks' services," the companies said in a joint statement. "Microsoft identified malware that had escaped Vitalwerks' detection. Upon notification and review of the evidence, Vitalwerks took immediate corrective action allowing Microsoft to identify victims of this malware. The parties have agreed to permanently disable Vitalwerks subdomains used to control the malware."
"We did the thing we should have done in the first place after some guys pointed out what a bunch of dumb motherfuckers we'd been."
It's the law. According to an American judge.
Microsoft identified malware that had escaped Vitalwerks' detection. Upon notification and review of the evidence, Vitalwerks took immediate corrective action allowing Microsoft to identify victims of this malware.
Yeah, if waking up one day to find that most of your business has been handed over to another company is what passes for "notification" these days.
I hope Microsoft paid them handsomely.
Thanks to the War on Drugs, it's easier to buy meth than it is to buy cold medicine!
If only the idiot judge that approved the request for injunction had demanded to see some factual evidence that No-IP was actively aiding from the two bot herders also listed in the motion instead of just taking Microsoft's flimsy insinuations for it. Plus, it might have helped if the judge had given No-IP the chance to defend themselves before court instead of permitting the ex-parte session.
I always find it funny to see Microsoft using legal actions to fight malware rather than just fix the problem...
Not really. They got away with it at no real cost. Chances are our "small Nevada hosting provider" was cooperating fully with Microsoft, and playing the victim card helps avoid bad press. Or it could be covering up a National Security Letter.
I don't know, the message from No-IP includes the statement: "While we are extremely pleased with the settlement terms, we are outraged by Microsoft’s tactics and that we were not able to completely and immediately restore services to the majority of our valuable customers that had been affected." This sounds an awful lot like code for "Microsoft paid us a metric crap-ton of money, but part of the agreement is that we wouldn't tell how much."
...an unnamed small Nevada hosting provider was the subject of an intense and unannounced BSA audit on Thursday...
"Tell me doctor, with all of your defenses, are there any provisions for an attack by killer bees?"
Yeah, right, like malware only runs on Windows.... The real problem is that a lot of ISPs take a lot of time (if ever) to do anything about this. You really think that nobody has reported this before MS decided to take action?
Perl Programmer for hire
Even if they may have jumped the gun in this case, at least somebody's out there trying to do some enforcement.
If Microsoft wasn't the "bad guy", why offer a settlement less than two weeks later?
For some reason I feel like doubting the sincerity of this statement.
...would be shutting down these god damn Windows machines that are infected zombies taking on the malicious tasks that this whole damn situation is about. No-IP is nothing without Microsoft's infected junk spewing garbage and infections all over the Internet. It's not like Microsoft doesn't hold the keys to immobilize a system running their own operating system anyway, they have the kill switch built right in to the OS before you even buy the license to run it in the form of WGA.
Microsoft portrayed No-IP as primarily a business making money from botnet operators, but Microsoft only listed a few hundred subdomain names that were implicated. Compared to what I imagine is hundreds of thousands, or millions (or tens of millions) of subdomain names that No-IP must support to have a viable business, it's a tiny fraction.
The real "Libtards" are the Libertarians!
If you think about it, Microsoft has a close relationship with the NSA - see the _NSAKey scandal.
Routing all traffic No-ip traffic through MS controlled servers, it can safely be assumed the data was routed to the NSA.
The full list of no-ip names and associated internet addresses (and thus identities of the users) I think could be a very valuable thing for the government.
It smells wrong.
Um you could get their identity by traceing each dns entry to its ip address in most cases
---Saying gnome 3 is better than windows 8 not so much a compliment as it is damning with light praise.
Any update on the Qualcomm DMCA takedowns at Github?
#naabhaprzrag, #sverubfr-000, #agi-fcbafberq, negvpyr[pynff*=' negvpyr-ary-'] { qvfcynl: abar !vzcbegnag; }
Who made Microsoft the fucking internet police anyway?
Weaselmancer
rediculous.
Innocent victims (aka the third parties) might have a window for a class action suit versus Microsoft for the damage/losses they caused by this wee stunt. Hurting an innocent third party or few isn't smiled upon I would hope.
It wasn't a load problem. The setup was just wrong (recursive resolvers used as authoritative servers didn't answer non-recursive queries correctly). It wouldn't have worked if Microsoft had given it all the CPU power and network capacity in the world. Garbage in, garbage out.
"Microsoft paid us a metric crap-ton of money..."
Petty cash... And besides, this "news" is a press release. Everybody got what they were looking for (except the users of the domains) and it will be forgotten like yesterday's lunch. Smells like fish
“He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
The takeaway is either:
1. No business should use Azure because Azure doesn't scale. OR:
2. No business should rely on Microsoft services, because Microsoft does not have the necessary competence.
This is only the latest in a line of screwups by Microsoft in their service offerings.
The real "Libtards" are the Libertarians!
I don't like Redmond
so why are you slobbering their knob?
Snowden and Manning are heroes.
I run an ISP. Is it kosher for me to block all IE browser traffic? After all, IE is one of the largest vectors of malware infections on earth. At least I'd be "out there doing some enforcement."
Microsoft enforcement policy: "Ready! Fire! Aim!"
BTW, I didn't see where Microsoft apologized for their actions to the Internet community.
When the 800-lb gorilla in the room gestures at you to drop your pants the only choice you have is whether he breaks your arm first or not...
'Don't worry' said the trees when they saw the axe coming, 'The handle is one of us.'