Fastmail.com suffering DDOS attack

#1

Post by moonlighter » Thu, Jun 30, 2016, 4:12 PM UTC

Fastmail.com suffering DDOS attack
fastmailstatus.com

Re: Fastmail.com suffering DDOS attack

#2

Post by tshtf » Thu, Jun 30, 2016, 4:48 PM UTC

Not many alternatives:

1.) Run your own SMTP infrastructure. Setup SPF/DKIM/DMARC. Realize your outbound emails still don't always reach their destination. Also you have to fight inbound SPAM.

2.) Use gmail or Google Apps. Things just work. Cede control to Google.

Re: Fastmail.com suffering DDOS attack

#3

Post by _quick_q » Thu, Jun 30, 2016, 5:03 PM UTC

tshtf wrote: post #2

Not many alternatives: 1.) Run your own SMTP infrastructure. Setup SPF/DKIM/DMARC. Realize your outbound emails still don't always reach their destination. Also you have to fight inbound SPAM. 2.) Use gmail or Google Apps. Things just work. Cede control to Google.

>> Use gmail or Google Apps. Things just work. Cede control to Google.

Google is not without its problems. Just now on HN, in fact: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12008365

Re: Fastmail.com suffering DDOS attack

#4

Post by greyone » Thu, Jun 30, 2016, 5:05 PM UTC

tshtf wrote: post #2

Not many alternatives: 1.) Run your own SMTP infrastructure. Setup SPF/DKIM/DMARC. Realize your outbound emails still don't always reach their destination. Also you have to fight inbound SPAM. 2.) Use gmail or Google Apps. Things just work. Cede control to Google.

(2) Hmmm..well Google Calendar just had an outage.

I'll stick with Fastmail is very reliable and independent. They can't really be blamed for a DOS attack.

Re: Fastmail.com suffering DDOS attack

#5

Post by toast0 » Thu, Jun 30, 2016, 5:11 PM UTC

tshtf wrote: post #2

Not many alternatives: 1.) Run your own SMTP infrastructure. Setup SPF/DKIM/DMARC. Realize your outbound emails still don't always reach their destination. Also you have to fight inbound SPAM. 2.) Use gmail or Google Apps. Things just work. Cede control to Google.

> 2.) Use gmail or Google Apps. Things just work. Cede control to Google.

Until they don't, and then good luck with getting ahold of someone who can actually do anything to fix your problem(s).

Re: Fastmail.com suffering DDOS attack

#6

Post by troydavis » Thu, Jun 30, 2016, 5:12 PM UTC

tshtf wrote: post #2

Not many alternatives: 1.) Run your own SMTP infrastructure. Setup SPF/DKIM/DMARC. Realize your outbound emails still don't always reach their destination. Also you have to fight inbound SPAM. 2.) Use gmail or Google Apps. Things just work. Cede control to Google.

#2 is generally true of FastMail as well. In 2 years as a customer, it's been close to bulletproof.

Re: Fastmail.com suffering DDOS attack

#7

Post by cbg0 » Thu, Jun 30, 2016, 5:14 PM UTC

toast0 wrote: post #5

tshtf wrote: post #2

Not many alternatives: 1.) Run your own SMTP infrastructure. Setup SPF/DKIM/DMARC. Realize your outbound emails still don't always reach their destination. Also you have to fight inbound SPAM. 2.) Use gmail or Google Apps. Things just work. Cede control to Google.

> 2.) Use gmail or Google Apps. Things just work. Cede control to Google. Until they don't, and then good luck with getting ahold of someone who can actually do anything to fix your problem(s).

If you're paying for Google Apps, you get e-mail and phone support.

Re: Fastmail.com suffering DDOS attack

#8

Post by delroth » Thu, Jun 30, 2016, 5:16 PM UTC

greyone wrote: post #4

tshtf wrote: post #2

Not many alternatives: 1.) Run your own SMTP infrastructure. Setup SPF/DKIM/DMARC. Realize your outbound emails still don't always reach their destination. Also you have to fight inbound SPAM. 2.) Use gmail or Google Apps. Things just work. Cede control to Google.

(2) Hmmm..well Google Calendar just had an outage. I'll stick with Fastmail is very reliable and independent. They can't really be blamed for a DOS attack.

> They can't really be blamed for a DOS attack.

That doesn't really hold when their competitors have teams of engineers working on DDoS mitigations and successfully handle most of these attacks. Falling to a DoS is a technical failure just like other causes of outages.

Re: Fastmail.com suffering DDOS attack

#9

Post by corford » Thu, Jun 30, 2016, 5:22 PM UTC

delroth wrote: post #8

greyone wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

(2) Hmmm..well Google Calendar just had an outage. I'll stick with Fastmail is very reliable and independent. They can't really be blamed for a DOS attack.

> They can't really be blamed for a DOS attack. That doesn't really hold when their competitors have teams of engineers working on DDoS mitigations and successfully handle most of these attacks. Falling to a DoS is a technical failure just like other causes of outages.

A ~1 hour response time from identifying to mitigating the DDoS isn't exactly bad. I'd say their engineers did a pretty good job.

Re: Fastmail.com suffering DDOS attack

#10

Post by peterwwillis » Thu, Jun 30, 2016, 5:24 PM UTC

tshtf wrote: post #2

Not many alternatives: 1.) Run your own SMTP infrastructure. Setup SPF/DKIM/DMARC. Realize your outbound emails still don't always reach their destination. Also you have to fight inbound SPAM. 2.) Use gmail or Google Apps. Things just work. Cede control to Google.

Don't do #1 if you want to reliably accept or send mail. Fun for experimenting/learning, though.

Also, you can buy your own domain, and have Google merely act as the SMTP relay and temporary storage. They can also forward your mail to another server for you.