Panix hi-jack mystery solved
p2pnet.net News:- The mystery of how New York ISP Panix came to be hi-jacked over the weekend has been solved.
Bruce Tonkin, cto of Melbourne IT, an Australian ISP, said it came about through a loophole involving an account set up with stolen credit cards.
It also focused attention on recent ICANN rule changes that allow domains to be transferred more easily, which some registrars warned would also make it easier to hijack domains, says Britain’s Netcraft.
Panix was hoisted over the weekend and false information for the domain went to top-level Internet domain servers from 04:30 Saturday morning Jan 15 until 6 pm Sunday Jan 16 (US-EST).
Email, Web access and other connectivity to the panix.com domain was disrupted, notwithstanding efforts by the North American Network Operators Group (NANOG) to help Panix get the domain back.
“The delays were blamed on unresponsiveness by several providers within the domain management system, but especially Melbourne IT, which appears to have no readily-accessible support on weekends,” says Netcraft, going that the hijacking wasn’t reversed until Melbourne IT’s offices opened in Australia Monday morning, late Sunday in New York.
"There was an error in the checking process prior to initiating the transfer, and thus the transfer should never have been initiated," Bruce Tonkin, the chief technology officer of Melbourne IT wrote in a message to the NANOG mailing list, states Netcraft.
"The loophole that led to this error has been closed."
Tonkin didn’t describe the loophole but said the transfer of the domain from Dotster to Melbourne IT initiated through an account at a Melbourne IT reseller, which was set up using stolen credit cards.
"That reseller is analysing its logs and cooperating with law enforcement," he wrote, according to the story.
That may explain how the hijacking occurred, “but will bring greater scrutiny of new ICANN rules implemented in November, which allowed transfers to proceed with a customer confirmation by the ‘gaining’ registrar but without a similar approval by the ‘losing’ registrar,” says Netcraft.
Ironically, Melbourne IT’s slogan is, ‘Missed out oin the domain name you really wanted?"
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See:-
solved – Lapse at Melbourne IT Enabled Panix.com Hijacking, Netcraft, January 18, 2005
hoisted – Panix.com panic almost over, p2pnet, January 17, 2005
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