Domain registrar and hosting company GoDaddy is experiencing outages that could potentially affect millions of websites. The issues were first noticed around 10 a.m. PT and have been intermittent since then, a spokesperson for GoDaddy told CBS News. The outages have impacted their site as well as those belonging to customers.
The publication notes that calls to GoDaddy customer support are being redirected to a voice message stating they are aware of the situation and that it involves multiple services including email and web hosting. The message further suggests that customers keep an eye on their official Twitter feed for additional updates.
A member of hacker group Anonymous is already claiming responsibility for the attack according to some accounts reportedly linked to the group. @TibitXimer tweeted earlier: "Basically, every GoDaddy site on the planet just crashed."
The motive for an attack on GoDaddy becomes clear after reading the following post from @AnonOpsLegion: "By using / supporting Godaddy, you are supporting censorship of the Internet." This of course is in reference to the company's controversial stance on the Stop Online Piracy Act that garnered a wealth of media attention late last year. GoDaddy reportedly lost over 37,000 domain names as a result of "move your domain day" on December 29.
It's worth pointing out that Anonymous' credibility has been called into question as of late. The group recently claimed responsibility for stealing 12 million Apple UDIDs from a federal agent's notebook using a Java vulnerability. The data was made public to showcase what they claim was the FBI's alleged tracking of Apple devices but as it turns out, only part of their story is true.
Anonymous did obtain legitimate Apple UDIDs and publish them online but they weren't gathered from an FBI agent's computer. Instead, the data was stolen from digital publishing firm BlueToad within the last two weeks. It appears the FBI involvement was fabricated to further their agenda.