Published in News

Microsoft cocks up pirate fight

by on02 July 2014

PR own goal

Microsoft appears to have cocked up the takeover of a malware operation which was centred on the No-IP.com. Redmond disrupted dynamic DNS hosting for millions of No-IP.com users, in a bid to take down the command and control of a botnet.

Microsoft's attempts to restore service to legitimate users have been ineffective, mostly because DNS manipulation is hard and Redmond is not much good at it, No-IP spokeswoman Natalie Goguen was quoted as saying. It should have been a day in the sun for Microsoft after all taking down a botnet is good publicity.

Instead David Finn, executive director and associate general counsel for the Microsoft digital crimes unit said that due to a technical error, , some customers whose devices were not infected by the malware experienced a temporary loss of service. He claimed that all service was restored and Microsoft regreted any inconvenience these customers experienced."

It appears that in an unconnected move No-IP is also suffering from a DoS attack. The result is that Redmond has been blamed for stuffing up the service longer than was needed.

Microsoft was only supposed to seized control of 22 No-IP domains that were being abused by two botnets.

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