The Internet attacks…

What was the end result or cause of the Internet attacks several weeks ago?
It was a dynamic denial of service (dDOS) attack.  Specifically, it was a new version of an NTP amplification attack.

So, we were the only people impacted?
No… in fact, many sites globally were involved, see the map below.

locations around the world involved in NTP attacks on Mar 10th.

What destination were they trying to get into? Was there a specific destination or service they were trying to crack into?
For our specific situation, the attack was against our Internet connection – so they there was no attempt to break into or crack into any information system. Instead, it was simply a malicious attack that’s goal was to be annoying – and it succeeded.

Other additional information and links related to this type of attack:

• Technical details about NTP amplification ddos attacks
• NTP Amplication Attack Alerts

Is everything back to normal?
Yes, by mid spring break, the attacks had been contained and our internet access was back normal and has remained normal since.

 

Under attack…

As of 9am this morning, all of our district web sites and online services are unavailable to parents and community members, here’s why…

For the last three days, our district has been under a continuous DOS, or Denial of Service, attack.    We’ve been working with our multiple internet providers to remedy the problem, however, as of this morning one of our carriers has dropped our connection because the increase in traffic was more than our system could handle.

Here’s specifically how this has impacted us today, March 3rd, 2014…

1) All of our district websites/services (web site, Infinite Campus, payschools, revtrak) are not available.

2) Emails sent to @wdmcs.org are not reaching us today – and will likely bounce back to you.

Q1.  What is the source of this problem, is someone trying to hack into the school system?
A1.  The true source has not been identified yet, as the source is continuously changing.  It does not appear that they are trying to hack into our network, but instead trying to overwhelm our internet connections, which they are successfully doing.

Q2. How long is this outage going to be?
A2.  Sorry, we do not know…  we are working with our internet providers to remedy the problem and identify the source(s).