14 DAY TRIAL // UK-based all-around Web hosting firm 123-Reg has been under a massive DDoS attack today that has affected a wide range of its services.
According to a statement from the company, the attack started today at around 10:00 AM, London time, and has continued through the day for at least a few hours, before letting up.
The attack peaked at 30 Gbps, according to a 123-Reg spokesperson, which is quite a considerable value, despite the all-time DDoS attack record being 579 Gbps, hit in the first half of this year.
The high numbers reported by the media when it comes to DDoS attacks sometimes make you forget that a DDoS attack larger than 1 Gbps is more than enough to down any Web service.
A 30 Gbps DDoS attack was more than what the attackers needed to affect 123-Reg's infrastructure, with clients reporting difficulties in accessing their hosting account control panels, email accounts, and even some of their website frontends.
"Our protection systems kicked in and were able to curtail the majority of the attack," the 123-Reg support team wrote. "Our system teams jumped on board and reconfigured the network routing to assist."
Nevertheless, the attack wasn't completely mitigated, and 123-Reg customers continued to complain via Twitter.
Hackers have recently started using DDoS attacks as a method of blackmailing companies for Bitcoin, which explains why somebody would try to launch an attack against a neutral entity such as 123-Reg.
Some customers may not be able to access our support page at present. For more information, please see below update. pic.twitter.com/SmIRxRXWIr — 123 Reg (@123reg) August 2, 2016