Sedo and GreatDomains Site Interruption

[SedoCoUk]

Due to a malicious attempt to disrupt our services, Sedo suffered from two different distributed denial of service (DDOS) attacks which temporarily caused the Sedo and GreatDomains.com websites to be slow or irresponsive between 17:55 and 20:15 CET on October, 22nd 2009 (11:55 and 2:15 PM EDT). Together with its protection provider, Prolexic, Sedo successfully fought both attacks and our websites are again fully operational. While the GreatDomains auction has concluded, to provide equal opportunities for all parties interested of the 1, 2 & 3-Character .de Pre-Auction, Sedo has extended the auction and attempted to contact and notify all bidders of the extended schedule.

 

[Gerry]

I wonder how many are actually buying into the "malicious attack" line rather than Sedo face the truth that you had thousands of names ending at precisely the exact same time with perhaps hundreds (if not thousands) of bidders attempting to snipe at precisely the exact same time.

 

[Vjizzle]

I wonder how many are actually buying into the "malicious attack" line rather than Sedo face the truth that you had thousands of names ending at precisely the exact same time with perhaps hundreds (if not thousands) of bidders attempting to snipe at precisely the exact same time.

I agree with Doc Com.

To those who work at Sedo, there is no harm in telling the truth. Just own up to it (although you may get some negative feedback about the Great Domains auction from individuals who could've sold their domain names for a much higher price).

By the way, is there any recourse for the Great Domain Auction that was affected by the "Malicious Attack"?

 

[demaxxus]

Yeah, a DDoS is a pretty convenient excuse.

 

[Domain Jedi]

While the GreatDomains auction has concluded, to provide equal opportunities for all parties interested of the 1, 2 & 3-Character .de Pre-Auction, Sedo has extended the auction and attempted to contact and notify all bidders of the extended schedule.

Both high profile auctions had the exact same end time. Why didn't Sedo extend the Great Domains auction as well and make things right with their sellers, buyers etc.

Please address this specific outstanding issue. :veryangry:

 

[Gerry]

I agree with Doc Com.

To those who work at Sedo, there is no harm in telling the truth. Just own up to it (although you may get some negative feedback about the Great Domains auction from individuals who could've sold their domain names for a much higher price).

By the way, is there any recourse for the Great Domain Auction that was affected by the "Malicious Attack"?

Not to mention the non .de and non Great domain auctions that were ending within that white out period.

The only denial of service was Sedo not learning anything from the previous lesson of a .mobi premium auction - the denial of service was Sedo not preparing to handle the onslaught of bids being entered.

 

[chillking]

I think the premium auction is void because it ended before it's ending time.
Thats why you extended the .de auction.

 

[Domain Jedi]

I think the premium auction is void because it ended before it's ending time.
Thats why you extended the .de auction.

This should absolutely be the case but get this...

My Heated.com Great Domains auction ended at only $1,500.

Bidding capabilities were out the last 5 minutes of the Great Domains auction. Lisa confirmed this when she wrote:

"Due to a malicious attempt to disrupt our services, Sedo suffered from two different distributed denial of service (DDOS) attacks which temporarily caused the Sedo and GreatDomains.com websites to be slow or irresponsive between 17:55 and 20:15 CET on October, 22nd 2009 (11:55 and 2:15 PM EDT)."

Once Sedo's site was up again, I received an offer for $2,750 for Heated.com no doubt from a bidder who couldn't bid the last 5 minutes.

This is the best part... You would think that Sedo would put all transaction processes on hold until management decides what do do however, the Great Domains winning bidder has already sent payment and it is sitting in escrow.

Looks like I may have to Lawyer up.

 

[Gerry]

Malicious describes how this auction was run.

Given that this happened before and sedo did nothing to correct this from happening again is pure ignorance.

Only through legal representation and action did it get sorted out after several months of wrangling.

 

[Domain Jedi]

I regret to inform all of you that my Sedo representative has informed me that after reviewing the October Great Domains auction, they do not feel that it was adversely affected by their site’s meltdown despite the fact that the auction ended at the same time as the .DE auction.

Basically, they are sweeping the October Great Domains auction issue under the rug and calling it a day.

 

[SedoCoUk]

Sedo would like to take this chance to provide more information regarding the distributed denial of service (DDOS) attack that intended to disrupt our services yesterday, including the conclusion of our monthly auction at GreatDomains.com and the 1, 2, & 3-Character .de Pre-Auction. While the Sedo and GreatDomains websites were slowed as the auction was closing, our bid logs show that we did not experience any downtime until a brief window of time after the close of the final domain being sold in the GreatDomains auction. Bids were still being received throughout the close of the auction and every domain receiving bids in the final minutes were extended in accordance with our auction rules. Throughout the auction, the number of bids received were high and consistent, and in the end, this GreatDomains auction resulted in higher than average bids and sales volume, easily beating the results from our September auction. Because every domain that would have been extended due to bidding activity were in fact extended, there was no cause or reason for any further extensions of the auction timeframe.

Sedo has invested heavily to build a robust infrastructure that can handle high traffic, even during multiple auction events, and were it not for a malicious attack on our servers by those attempting to disrupt our services, pages would have loaded as fast as normal. Due to our proactive measures to implement a response system for such attacks, the DDOS queries were quickly routed away from our servers and the site no longer experienced any delays. While we regret that some of our users experienced a slow response rate from our website, we are encouraged that even during an extreme event we concluded another successful GreatDomains auction.

 

[Domain Jedi]

Continue weaving your lies. I couldn't access the site for the last 4 minutes before auction end. I even placed a call to my Sedo rep. and the call was time stamped.

In terms of the great prices you are talking about, this is bull as well.

 

[Poohnix]

Sedo would like to take this chance to provide more information regarding the distributed denial of service (DDOS) attack that intended to disrupt our services yesterday, including the conclusion of our monthly auction at GreatDomains.com and the 1, 2, & 3-Character .de Pre-Auction. While the Sedo and GreatDomains websites were slowed as the auction was closing, our bid logs show that we did not experience any downtime until a brief window of time after the close of the final domain being sold in the GreatDomains auction. Bids were still being received throughout the close of the auction and every domain receiving bids in the final minutes were extended in accordance with our auction rules. Throughout the auction, the number of bids received were high and consistent, and in the end, this GreatDomains auction resulted in higher than average bids and sales volume, easily beating the results from our September auction. Because every domain that would have been extended due to bidding activity were in fact extended, there was no cause or reason for any further extensions of the auction timeframe.

Sedo has invested heavily to build a robust infrastructure that can handle high traffic, even during multiple auction events, and were it not for a malicious attack on our servers by those attempting to disrupt our services, pages would have loaded as fast as normal. Due to our proactive measures to implement a response system for such attacks, the DDOS queries were quickly routed away from our servers and the site no longer experienced any delays. While we regret that some of our users experienced a slow response rate from our website, we are encouraged that even during an extreme event we concluded another successful GreatDomains auction.

I don't get it... I wasn't involved in any of the auctions, neither as a seller or a bidder, but you are contradicting yourselves.
Either everything worked as it should, in which case all is well, and NO auction should be extended in any special way, neither GreatDomains or the .DE auctions. OR things DIDN'T work, and in that case BOTH auction events should be treated the same way.
You can't treat one as if there was an issue, and the other as if there wasn't. It must be both or none, or nothing you say rings true.

.

 

[Domain Jedi]

I don't get it... I wasn't involved in any of the auctions, neither as a seller or a bidder, but you are contradicting yourselves.
Either everything worked as it should, in which case all is well, and NO auction should be extended in any special way, neither GreatDomains or the .DE auctions. OR things DIDN'T work, and in that case BOTH auction events should be treated the same way.
You can't treat one as if there was an issue, and the other as if there wasn't. It must be both or none, or nothing you say rings true.

.

Amen Brother. At this point, Sedo is weaving lies...

 

[Dale Hubbard]

A DDOS will involve a set of access logs to substantiate it. Perhaps these logs might be posted at some stage. Really quite simple....

 

[ezhilraja]

Because every domain that would have been extended due to bidding activity were in fact extended, there was no cause or reason for any further extensions of the auction timeframe.

then, why did the .de auction extend?

 

[Domain Jedi]

I feel bad for SedoCoUk (Lisa) for having to come to this forum and spew out the spin on this whole fiasco. She is only the messenger after all.

You will notice that aside from her most recent post, she has been in hiding.

 

[stewie]

lets hope at least we learn something from this... this is sounding like an overloaded system.

 

[Domain Jedi]

DomainNameWire.com has a brief article regarding Sedo's statement:

http://domainnamewire.com/2009/10/23/sedo-auction-woes-were-caused-by-denial-of-service-attack/

Take a look at some of the comments that have been left:

11.Domain Investor October 23rd, 2009 | 5:01 pm
I was not able to access Sedo at the end of the Great Domains auction.

12.AR October 23rd, 2009 | 11:33 pm
I was going to bid on 3 different domains up to $5,000 but could not access the site about 20 minutes prior to the auction ending. I actually saw that error page saying the auction would be extended until 8 due to technical issues. I checked back a few hours later thinking I could still bid – based on the notice I saw when they were having issues. When I came back a few hours later all auctions had already ended. I do realize the confusion and I thought it said EST, but as mentioned above it was CET which in the US meant their downtime caused confused and we did not bid on domains we wanted. We were ready to bid within 10 minutes of the auctions scheduled end time.

So there are at least 3 domains that sold without our bids. Domain sellers were hurt by this downtime. Is there any way to see what prices the domains actually sold for after the auctions have closed?

14.Adam October 24th, 2009 | 1:25 am
poor planning. bummer for anyone with names in the GD auction

15.AR October 24th, 2009 | 1:33 am
Bummer for buyers too!

And Sedo has the nerve to say:

While the Sedo and GreatDomains websites were slowed as the auction was closing, our bid logs show that we did not experience any downtime until a brief window of time after the close of the final domain being sold in the GreatDomains auction. Bids were still being received throughout the close of the auction and every domain receiving bids in the final minutes were extended in accordance with our auction rules. Throughout the auction, the number of bids received were high and consistent, and in the end, this GreatDomains auction resulted in higher than average bids and sales volume, easily beating the results from our September auction. Because every domain that would have been extended due to bidding activity were in fact extended, there was no cause or reason for any further extensions of the auction timeframe.

 

[Mazkel]

Two of my domains sold for lower than expected.