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Ca.Gov Shutdown Avoidable, Says DNS Inventor
David Utter
Staff Writer
2007-10-10
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Dr. Paul Mockapetris had some comments to make after the federal General Services Administration caused California IT pros grief with a shutdown of their domain record.
The shutdown due to a hacked server on a ca.gov server wiped out that domain, and the ability for people working on that domain to get work done on the Internet.
Dr. Mockapetris, he of the RFCs 882 and 883 that gave the Internet the ability to use domain names, told SecurityProNews the shutdown GSA initiated didn't have to happen. It also didn't need to impede California workers.
He said IT administrators need to ensure that a top-level domain problem like ca.gov's can't be allowed to bring web and email traffic to a halt. People have the same needs for government services each day.
Those admins have to monitor their networks for problems on a 24/7 basis. In our earlier report, it was noted that the GSA notification of the shutdown ended up in the inbox of someone who would not ordinarily handle such an issue.
That's no excuse for not realizing something bad happened, or for not having a ready fallback in place for state workers.
The good doctor also had chastising words for the GSA, saying, "you don't necessarily turn off a domain because there are some bad users in there."
There is blame to go around for the Ca.Gov fiasco. Ultimately, better communication could have averted the problem.
About the Author:
David Utter is a business and technology writer for SecurityProNews and WebProNews.
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