Why was Zoom and Spotify down on Wednesday?

Happy Friday This week was a rough one for Zoom and Spotify. Both platforms went down, world-wide on Wednesday for a couple of hours. I know what you're thinking - cyber criminals. In this case you could be right. Here's what we know so far:

Why Zoom went down

According to the statement posted on Zoom's status page, the domain names Zoom uses, namely zoom.com and zoom.us were shut down by Godaddy due to a configuration glitch. They've since locked these domains so that it doesn't happen again but in this case, it was human bafoonery that caused the problem.

For hours telehealth visits got cancelled, state and local governments had to postpone public meetings and remote workers got to work in their pj's.

Why Spotify went down

This one is a less clear. Thousands of users around the world reported issues with the music streaming app, from the player to Spotify's homepage. The culprit? According to Spotify's status page, "reports of this being a security hack are false" but that's about it. There's no explanation of what caused one of the biggest outages in Spotify history - I think users were just happy to get their music back.

Could it have been bad guys? Maybe.

The Takeaway

With the increase in cybercrime comes an increase in outages. Just last month Microsoft had a global outage that kept people from being able to use Microsoft Office applications, Email and Teams. And let's not forget that it's an ecosystem. Crowdstrike's careless upgrade ground the world to a halt just a few months before that. So what can you do about this? Unfortunately the answer is simple and boring. Knowing that these outages occur and that your business depends on them, this might be a good time to revisit your Business Continuity (BC) plan. If you've never heard of a BC plan, it's is a guide that helps keep your company running or recover quickly when something unexpected disrupts normal operations. We help write these with our clients, but it is something you can tackle on your own as well. Here are some resources to get you started:

Ready.gov

Learn more about how to put together and test a business continuity plan with templates and videos. https://www.ready.gov/business/emergency-plans/continuity-planning

Fema

See their continuity plan template for non-Federal entities and community-based organizations. https://www.fema.gov/sites/default/files/2020-10/non-federal-continuity-plan-template_083118.pdf and see their guide: https://www.fema.gov/blog/tips-protecting-your-business-continuity-planning-and-cybersecurity-best-practices

CISA

They have a business continuity guide for emergency services organizations, which is not everyone, but many of the sections and workflows are similar to private sector BC planning.

https://www.cisa.gov/emergency-services-sector-continuity-planning-suite

In my experience, planning and documentation isn't something that's all that exciting for most people. If you need help or more inspiration, feel free to reach out - we can help.

Stay safe out there. -Attila

PS. f you want to hear more about scams and other IT security topics, all for free, check out our Cyber Secured Podcast series on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube Podcasts or any other place you listen to podcasts (we're on all of them).

New - the Positivity Box Tired of hearing about negative, fearful and disturbing cybersecurity news? Me too. You may be surprised to learn that good things happen in IT security. Let's celebrate them!

SonicWall has issued a security advisory disclosing three newly identified vulnerabilities in its NetExtender Windows client, a popular VPN tool used by organizations for secure remote access to internal networks. They've since patched the software client, so be sure you're running the most current version if you're connecting remotely to a Sonicwall device.

It's a good reminder that Sonicwall, PaloAlto, Fortinet and all commercial firewall vendors work hard to keep their products safe to use and it's our job as network defenders to keep them up-to-date!

And of course... the Friday Funnies!

Spotify won't let me listen to any Hungarian composers for some reason

I feel so Lisztless.

Are you ready for the upcoming Zoom meeting?

Not even remotely!

Today’s working from home tip:

Blowing on the wine in the mug will help convince your Zoom meeting that your tea is hot.