Akamai Provides Insight into Internet Denial of Service Attack.CAMBRIDGE, Mass. -- A widely reported, distributed denial of service attack An assault on a network that floods it with so many additional requests that regular traffic is either slowed or completely interrupted. Unlike a virus or worm, which can cause severe damage to databases, a denial of service attack interrupts network service for some period. yesterday impacted Akamai Technologies Akamai Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ: AKAM) is a company that provides a distributed computing platform for global Internet content and application delivery, headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts. , Inc. (NASDAQ NASDAQ in full National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations U.S. market for over-the-counter securities. Established in 1971 by the National Association of Securities Dealers (NASD), NASDAQ is an automated quotation system that reports on : AKAM AKAM Akamai Technologies, Inc. (stock abbreviation) AKAM Automated Key Access Machine ), the global leader in distributed computing solutions and services. The incident, which took place between approximately 8:30 AM ET and 10:45 AM ET on Tuesday, June 15th, was caused by a sophisticated, large-scale attack that Akamai identified as being targeted at specific Web sites that are Akamai customers. In response to earlier reports by a third-party website measurement service that inaccurately portrayed the impact of the attack on specific Web sites, Akamai released today the following information (based on Akamai's over 1,100 total customers under long-term services contracts): --the domain name service impact was limited to approximately 4 percent of the Akamai customer base --2 percent had noticeable impact --less than 1 percent of Akamai customers had a significant impact affecting more than 20 percent of their users Akamai regrets any inconvenience that the affected customers may have experienced, and continues to take steps to take action; to move in a matter. See also: Step to protect customers and itself against the effects of future attacks. The problem was quickly detected by Akamai's automated monitoring systems, and Akamai personnel mitigated the attack by working closely with customers, making key adjustments in the Company's infrastructure, and cooperating with several network partners around the world to shut down the source of the attack. Further, Akamai is cooperating with U.S. Federal law enforcement agencies A law enforcement agency (LEA) is a term used to describe any agency which enforces the law. This may be a local or state police, federal agencies such as the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) or the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA). that are investigating the incident. The attack impacted Akamai's Internet naming functionality (Domain Name Service, or DNS (Domain Name System) A system for converting host names and domain names into IP addresses on the Internet or on local networks that use the TCP/IP protocol. For example, when a Web site address is given to the DNS either by typing a URL in a browser or behind the ) and resulted in delays in DNS name resolutions and, in some cases, timed-out DNS requests. Some Internet end users trying to reach affected sites experienced slow responses from Akamai's DNS servers, resulting in page time-outs. The attack did not cause an outage in Akamai services, as Akamai continued to serve both DNS requests and website content for customers throughout the period of the attack. The Akamai Domain Name Service returned to normal by 10:45 AM ET on Tuesday, June 15th. Third party website measurement services can significantly overstate the impact of attacks such as this one, because these services use private name servers to check website availability. These private name servers do not serve traffic to actual end users. If one of these private name servers is unable to reach a site or to get a DNS resolution immediately, it may record that the site is unavailable. In contrast, actual end users are served by public name servers that make repeated attempts to perform DNS resolutions and, once successful, the appropriate domain name is shared with thousands of end users, who are then able to reach the websites they want. During Tuesday's attack, public name servers used by most end users worldwide were able to get DNS resolutions from Akamai, so most end users were able to access the Web content they wanted. For more information about Akamai, visit www.akamai.com. Akamai Statement Under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act The Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 (PSLRA) implemented several significant substantive changes affecting certain cases brought under the federal securities laws, including changes related to pleading, discovery, liability, class representation and awards fees and The release contains information about future expectations, plans and prospects of Akamai's management that constitute forward-looking statements for purposes of the safe harbor Safe Harbor 1. A legal provision to reduce or eliminate liability as long as good faith is demonstrated. 2. A form of shark repellent implemented by a target company acquiring a business that is so poorly regulated that the target itself is less attractive. provisions under The Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Actual results may differ materially from those indicated by these forward-looking statements as a result of various important factors including, but not limited to, the effects of any future attempts to intentionally disrupt our services or network by unauthorized users or others, failure to have available sufficient transmission capacity, a failure of Akamai's network infrastructure, and other factors that are discussed in the Company's Annual Report on Form 10-K Form 10-K A report required by the SEC from exchange-listed companies that provides for annual disclosure of certain financial information. Form 10-K See 10-K. , quarterly reports on Form 10-Q Form 10-Q See 10-Q. , and other documents periodically filed with the SEC. |
|
||||||||||||||||

Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion