SQL worm demonstrates vital need to mirror Microsoft.com

[Dave Farber <dave () farber net>]

------ Forwarded Message
From: Rich Wiggins <wiggins () msu edu>
Date: Sat, 25 Jan 2003 14:06:31 -0500 (EST)
To: Dave Farber <dave () farber net>
Subject: SQL worm demonstrates vital need to mirror Microsoft.com


Dave,

Today sysadmins worldwide are scrambling to patch servers running
Microsoft's SQL software.  A worm exploiting a known vulnerability has
brought MS-SQL services down all over the globe. Standard operating
procedure is to visit Microsoft.com to learn more and to download patches.
Yet for hours now I'm unable to even get the Microsoft home page to load.

This raises a basic and vital question: does Microsoft mirror its
Web presence?  Imagine if a disaster took Redmond totally offline
while this sort of worldwide security debacle was underway.  Are the
cybersecurity folks in Washington DC thinking about single points
of failure in the other Washington?

A trace from Michigan to microsoft.com tells the story:

tracert microsoft.com

Tracing route to microsoft.com [207.46.134.190]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

  1    10 ms    10 ms   <10 ms
  2   <10 ms   <10 ms    10 ms  com1-rtr-ve61.net.msu.edu [35.12.51.1]
  3   <10 ms   <10 ms    10 ms  cc-rtr-ge15.net.msu.edu [35.9.101.13]
  4   <10 ms   <10 ms    10 ms  ge0-2-0.msu5.mich.net [35.9.82.42]
  5    10 ms    20 ms    10 ms  ge-1-3-0x23.nl-chi3.mich.net
[198.108.23.212]
  6    10 ms    10 ms    10 ms  bpr2-ge-7-0-0.ChicagoEquinix.cw.net
[208.174.224
73]
  7    10 ms    10 ms    10 ms  agr2-loopback.Chicago.cw.net [208.172.2.102]
  8    10 ms    10 ms    10 ms  dcr1-so-7-1-0.Chicago.cw.net [208.175.10.69]
  9    10 ms    10 ms    10 ms  agr4-so-0-0-0.Chicago.cw.net [208.175.10.30]
 10    60 ms    70 ms    70 ms  acr2-loopback.Seattle.cw.net [208.172.82.62]
 11    60 ms    60 ms    70 ms  bpr2-as0-0.SeattleSwitchDesign.cw.net
[208.172.8
1.185]
 12    90 ms   100 ms    90 ms
microsoft-hotmail-exodus.SeattleSwitchDesign.cw.
net [208.173.50.86]
 13    90 ms   100 ms    90 ms  pos0-0.core1.sea1.us.msn.net [207.46.33.13]
 14     *        *        *     Request timed out.
 15     *        *        *     Request timed out.

Technology for mirroring and caching high-attention Web sites is
readily available from Akamai, but Microsoft is notably absent from
their list of customers:

http://www.akamai.com/en/html/about/customers.html

/rich


------ End of Forwarded Message

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