DDoS attacks on SermonIndex server

sermonindex Jan 1, 2016

Saints,

The site has been down for 3 hours tonight because of DDOS (Denial of Service) which is a hacking problem. It has been affecting the entire large servers which host "part" of SermonIndex and the DNS so the website went down.

The brother who helps us with this is probably going to move to another solution, we are not sure if this is an attack on SermonIndex.net itself it seems to rather be a general attack on the entire web host we use for the Code, Database and DNS.

We appreciate prayers that God would continue to protect this website and allow these messages and sermons prepare the body of Christ for the coming of the Lord.

D

dolfan Jan 2, 2016

PRAYING NOW

S

SHMILY Jan 2, 2016

Praying.

This is the first time I have been able to get on all day.

sermonindex Jan 2, 2016

Saints,

Do continue to pray as we are still moving parts of the site to a new server. This should be able to remedy this problem. The site has been down for over 15 hours most of the time. We apologize for this and ask for renewed prayers for the fruitfulness and protection of the website.

D

dougr777 Jan 2, 2016

I will be praying, the Lord placed this on my heart recently being a former IT tech, and in spite of the global attacks on the church, this site is not a favorite in the enemy's plans.

J

jondaley Jan 2, 2016

It wasn't a direct attack on SermonIndex, nor Lime Daley, but it was a direct attack on linode.com, where the server was hosted. They haven't published complete details yet, but it was apparently a very large attack, and the hackers were actively changing their approach as the Linode engineers were able to block different parts of it.

Unfortunately for us, our server was hosted in Atlanta, and that was the datacenter that they focused on the most.

I had been planning on moving off of Linode anyway, but this was a good impetus to get it done sooner than later.

All of the files and database were copied last night, and then the DNS records were switched this morning, and everything should be fine now.

In the process, I fixed up a handful of errors in the software that runs the site, so it should be slightly faster. I'm not totally sure how the server speeds compare - it is a bit of apples to oranges, but I'd be interested in hearing if you all notice it being faster or slower than it was previously.

God bless.

M

mama27 Jan 2, 2016

I just want to thank Brother Greg and all those who keep this site running. It was distressing to not be able to get on all day yesterday. I am sure I am not alone in checking this site several times a day to connect with those who are passionate about the deeper things of God. Thank you so very much!!

sermonindex Jan 2, 2016

It wasn't a direct attack on SermonIndex, nor Lime Daley, but it was a direct attack on linode.com, where the server was hosted. They haven't published complete details yet, but it was apparently a very large attack, and the hackers were actively changing their approach as the Linode engineers were able to block different parts of it.
Unfortunately for us, our server was hosted in Atlanta, and that was the datacenter that they focused on the most.

Thanks Jon, for confirming this for us. I did notice the Atlanta server for the company was totally down and because of the attacks on all different locations it seems it would not be directed solely to SermonIndex, hopefully!

sermonindex Jan 2, 2016

Thank you Greg and Jon for all the hard work you put in, will continue to pray for SI.
We are getting so used to it, to find our daily "Manna" with the click of a mouse ;)

On a more technical note, have you considered to de-centralise it a bit?
Don't know if something like the "Diaspora project" could be an idea ?

Blessings !

sermonindex Jan 2, 2016

Brother,

Great thought!!

Towards Disapora https://diasporafoundation.org Yes that has been on my heart for a few years to see the sermons hosted and served by God's people individually. Even the website itself could be hosted on "end" computers so there is no central server or that it would just be a "pod" or hub in the wheel.

since the inception of the site we have never sought to be the sole distributor of the sermons and have been able to get them hosted on many other websites.

We do have beta software where you can download (works best on a pc) all the sermons: https://www.sermonindex.net/modules/newbb/viewtopic.php?topic_id=52449&forum=16

I have been asking the developer of the software if bit-torrent sharing could be implimented into it so that saints could host and serve the sermon files from their home computers, building a network of saints who would have all the messages or parts of the archive on their hard-drive, laptop, etc.

I wrote this about the software:

Genesis 41:49 Joseph stored up huge quantities of grain, like the sand of the sea; it was so much that he stopped keeping records because it was beyond measure.

Saints,

The Lord spoke through a brother that he saw SermonIndex as the grain in Joseph’s day. That was many months ago and recently a brother shared that he felt led to compile a software program for SermonIndex so believers could download sermons easily to their computer and then share them with others. I believe this is one way the Lord is going to fulfill the word He spoke towards SermonIndex being like the grain of Joseph in the end-times. As many churches are ceasing to preach the truth and society as a whole is becoming abusive towards the Good News of Jesus Christ. There will be less avenues to access God’s word and godly sermons that will edify God’s people.

We are encouraging all believers who have a computer to download this software and download many sermons to their computer hard-drives. From there you can listen to sermons easily and also download ALL the sermons of one speaker easily. Our heart in this is that God’s people would be able to share these resources with many and have them stored like grain for a time when even SermonIndex.net itself might not be available. This will also provide multiple back-ups of SermonIndex across the world.

D

dohzman Jan 3, 2016

Have you thought about making all downloads only accessible to those who are logged in to the site?That way it would be easy enough to track any attacks and trace IP s no matter what an attacker tries, really hard to spoof an address even if they steal a login and pw, your ISP would be able to pinpoint the route and nail down the location. You could make certain cookie demands so browsers like Tor do not work. That way no truly anonymous visitors would be on the site.

A Java pipe with DDoS protective software would be an option if you could get the funding for it, that would be another consideration.

Redundant DNS maybe with load balancing from the server site? see what they say, that too may be an option. Do you run a cache server for your content? May want to try that.

S

sirilpaul10 Jan 4, 2016

We are praying for sermonindex, this is the one site which blessed us the most. God is with us, he only will sustain us.

J

jondaley Jan 14, 2016

Thanks for your thoughts.

In this case, the traffic wasn't even hitting our server at all, but the attack was on the network(!) level. So, I imagine it was quite a lot of traffic to take it down. They haven't written a report yet on the extent of the attack, so I don't know actual numbers.

We have considered a caching service like cloudflare, but haven't needed it so far.

I have used the network that we just moved sermonindex to for somewhere around 10 years, and they have been quite responsive when any issues come up, so I'm hopeful that these sorts of issues should be behind us, at least until SermonIndex's traffic grows -- so keep those forum posts coming... :)

D

deltadom Jan 14, 2016

this is scary
How to Get Rid of Denial of Service Attacks
http://www.bgpexpert.com/antidos.php

My background is computer science

A

alamb Feb 8, 2016

I finally got Java downloaded on my pc last night. I'm no computer whiz at all. When I followed your link to add Java I never could find the version you were saying to download so I just went to the Oracle site and got the newest version. I was thinking about downloading the bulk of the sermons to share with others as you have suggested but how much free space on a computer is required for that amount of data? I don't have a website either. I don't understand how it would all work together. The dream you had about Joseph's grain storage and the interpretation resonated truth in my spirit. I want to be sure that I always have access to these Holy Spirit inspired sermons for anyone to hear. I also want to convey how much this site and the people here have encouraged me beyond words in my walk with Jesus. I wish I could find the words to say that I feel in my heart.

Judy

A

alamb Feb 10, 2016

I found out the answers to my questions! No need to reply.
Blessings to everyone.
alamb

sermonindex Feb 10, 2016

The dream you had about Joseph's grain storage and the interpretation resonated truth in my spirit. I want to be sure that I always have access to these Holy Spirit inspired sermons for anyone to hear.

Dear sister,

Forgive me for missing your post. Praise God that the Spirit bore witness to this burden to see the sermons stored up in saints computers and drives all over the world. Let me know if there is anyway I can serve you.