The importance of DNS parsing from AppStore downtime

March 11, shortly after Apple's happy release of AppleWatch, its Web site was brutally global, downtime lasted up to 11 hours, during which Apple Internet services such as the App Store, ITunes store, and icloud were inaccessible. Such a large-scale, long-time disruption of network services is the biggest crisis in Apple's online services in recent years.

According to the foreign media website, the large-scale outage caused the global Apple users can not access and purchase, Apple caused at least $25 million direct losses, and the major accident also affected Apple's share price, after the incident, Apple shares fell 1.82 sharply %, an instant evaporation of $ more than 13 billion.

After the site resumed, Apple officially apologized to the user, saying the cause of the failure was an internal DNS (Domain Name System) error. In fact, Apple also had a similar outage last September, when itunes and the App Store were interrupted for 6 hours, and then the explanation from Apple was a DNS (Domain Name System) error.

Visible stable and secure DNS Resolution service is important for a website, especially a large website like AppStore. Although Apple called the incident an "internal system failure" and indirectly denied that the site was being attacked, why did the same "DNS error" occur continuously? Is there a vulnerability in Apple's internal DNS? How can I ensure DNS security? ...... In the rapid development of the internet today, frequently staged DNS "sudden death", so that we have to face the importance of DNS resolution security again!

Why is DNS so important?

DNS is a distributed database of domain names and IP addresses that map to each other, making it easier for people to access the Internet. Simply put, DNS is like an automatic phone book, users can directly enter the name of the site to replace the input complex IP address, and the site name and IP mapping between the resolution, it depends on the DNS service to complete. As the infrastructure of network application, the security and stability of DNS service have a significant impact on the healthy and orderly operation of Internet.

How is DNS security maintained?

dnspod, China's largest domain name resolution service provider , has concluded that the following three points need to be done in DNS security maintenance:

First,DNS real-time monitoring is the foundation.

DNS service is a very high-performance service, accurate and comprehensive monitoring system is the basis of the entire DNS service operation. DNS security monitoring requires a complete set of monitoring system, including network traffic monitoring, Server Core monitoring module, analytic monitoring, server cluster monitoring and so on.

Second, theDNS protection capability is the key.

DNS servers are an important part of the Internet infrastructure. In the current network attacks, the most annoying to the webmaster is the attack against the DNS. Strengthen the DNS protection ability, need to upgrade the server cluster, improve the program resolution speed.

Third, domain name account security is guaranteed.

Domain name resolution related security issues occur frequently, in order to prevent users because of account password leakage or domain name registration information is black cause the domain name is retrieved and so on, you must always control the domain name account security. For example , QQ token dynamic password, bank network silver dynamic password card and Dnspod launched the domain name lock and account lockout function, all can effectively ensure the user account property security.

How do I select a DNS service provider?     

We are not sure if there are any overlooked vulnerabilities in Apple's internal DNS. But the powerful Apple is not completely spared the problem of downtime, can not complete the independent analysis of small and medium-sized sites and how to be good? At this time choose a reliable analytic service provider, it becomes the key to solve the problem. Server response speed, intelligent resolution of the line, the ability to defend attacks, the number of monitoring nodes, and so on, are the basic criteria to determine whether a service provider is professional.

Tail Notes:

after the Apple website service outage incident, many users have complained on the social networking site Twitter, and use "Itunesdown" and "Appstoresdown" and other topics to vent their grievances. Dnspod, the country's largest domain-name resolution service provider, has also commented on Apple's outage: If Apple could face its own DNS security problems earlier, or use Dnspod's 24-hour downtime monitoring (d-monitoring), it would not have paid $13 billion in painful lessons. At the same time, he also said that Dnspod spent 9 years, always committed to providing high-end intelligent resolution services, its products to stable, safe, high-speed, powerful features such as the user's favorite, in the domain Name Service industry has a good reputation. Always welcome AppStore access Dnspod, experience China's most secure and stable DNS resolution service, let Apple never down!

The importance of DNS parsing from AppStore downtime