Dhiraagu wishes to inform its customers that recently unauthorized access has been gained by certain parties to one of its DhivehiNet web hosting servers deleting files of the hosted sites and defacing some 200 website domains.

Of the 200 domains there were some 100 active sites. It is suspected that the perpetrators gained access through a flaw in the operating system running on the server.

In order to restore the affected websites quickly, the server was put back into working condition shortly after evaluating the impact of the incident with temporary precautions implemented. Most of the web sites that were affected during this incident have been restored.

Web masters of those websites that have not been restored are advised to upload the contents using their normal web hosting account. For any assistance, webmasters are requested to contact Dhiraagu.

Through an exercise Dhiraagu initiated early this year, and with the help of Internet and Data security experts in UK, Dhiraagu had reviewed its network and services hosted.

An Internet Security Project was started to replace the legacy network with an updated and even more secure network, and phase 1 and 2 (redesigning and constructing of a completely new and more secure network) has already been completed. A third and final phase to migrate the services (including web hosting service) on to the new network was underway when this incident happened.

New enhanced web servers, under phase 2 of the Internet Security Project, loaded with updated and more secure operating systems had been installed and are running. Some of the websites had already been transferred to the new server when this incident happened.

The sites hosted on the new servers were not accessed during these incidents. Dhiraagu is currently contacting the website owners to carryout the work required for the migration of the remaining sites. Security tests on the new server have been run by security experts directly from UK to ensure all known security vulnerabilities has been properly addressed.

Dhiraagu expects to transfer all websites to these new secure servers in the next few days and would be contacting webmasters for their assistance during and after transfers.

As network security of the services of this nature depend on the elements of both customer coded websites and Dhiraagu web hosting server capabilities, it would be near impossible to fully eliminate possibility of such threats from one side alone.

Hence, Dhiraagu wishes to advise customers to remain updated on the possible and known threats. Dhiraagu, through its DhivehiNet website, will continue to keep customers updated on worldwide internet and related security issues, as they become known.

Additionally Dhiraagu had partnered with Message Labs, one of the world’s best Anti-Spam and Anti-Virus services, to minimize the impact of spam and virus attacks that are often triggered with emails. Also a security awareness seminar was held for the IT managers of Dhiraagu’s customers.

Dhiraagu maintains updated records and backups of our web hosting server configurations and setting in order to quickly restore a failed feature or a specific service. Hence, customers are strongly advised to keep a backup of most updated set of their web site contents, as normal.

Dhiraagu regrets any inconvenience caused during these incidents and wishes to thank customers for their patience and cooperation provided during this time.

Customers with any queries can call 123 FREE (24 hours a day, 7 days a week) or email [email protected].


Issued by:
Ahmed Shaafiu
Manager Marketing
Phone: 311450