GoDaddy recently dropped one of their hosting customers because MySpace said so...Well, that's the word anyway. Apparently Seclists.org, which hosts some 250,000 pages of mailing list archives and other resources, had multiple MySpace names, passwords and personal info in their archives, online and readily available. The site was hosted by GoDaddy.com. MySpace contacted GoDaddy.com and asked that the site be shut down, or at least take the information off the web. Can you blame MySpace.com for protecting their users? You and me in fact!

Well, needless to say GoDaddy took the site offline, right away! They claim that they tried to contact the company, to warn them or to request they take this information off the site, but didn't receive any notice from them. Acting fast is an understatement, but for the individuals who's personal info was listed online, I don't think it could have been fast enough.

GoDaddy.com has a 24 hour abuse system, that removes any illegal or child porn information as soon as possible. According to GoDaddy's general counsel, Christina Jones,

"We're not here to allow people to put illegal content on the Internet," she said. "We take this safety and the security of the Internet very seriously...We take our responsibility pretty seriously. We're the largest registrar in the world."

They are, they offer great prices, great service and incredible features for hosting and domain services. But, this issue has still come to a head regarding freedom of speech, which they're getting some pretty hard hits about. But, what about Seclists.org obligation to making sure OUR personal info doesn't get blasted all over their website for public use? No comment there, eh?

When it comes to the internet and big conglomerates (ahem...Myspace.com) the public is first to take the underdog under their wing, and bash the million dollar corporations. But, these big bad conglomerates wouldn't have gotten so far keeping their client's personal info, passwords, etc. over the internet where it shouldn't be visible. They censor that crap, as they should! I for one, say THANK YOU Godaddy.com for looking out for the little people! Every MySpace user should too.

Screw Seclists.com, you should higher an internet security employee from MySpace to make sure you don't post our personal, highly secure information on your website. Obviously you aren't capable or maybe you just don't understand internet law. NEXT time you'll be in for LAWSUIT. You should be thanking GoDaddy.com for that too.

Also, while I'm on it, I get this info from CNETNEWS.COM, and a few other news sites. CNET posted this comment as a last little tidbit, attempting a clever retort to GoDaddy's actions:

"When asked if GoDaddy would remove the registration for a news site like CNET News.com, if a reader posted illegal information in a discussion forum and editors could not be immediately reached over a holiday, Jones replied: 'I don't know...It's a case-by-case basis.'"

I like CNET news, they have some great covers of technology news, but guess what? I don't like being jerked around, and treated like I'm dumb enough to buy your crowd pleasing tripe. As if I couldn't possibly think for myself and know that whether or not its MySpace.com against the world, I can't find the wrong in a hosting company taking illegal info off the web.

I hope Seclists.com posts all your personal info over the web (CNET), including passwords, financial accounts, etc. And, maybe the new hippie hosting company they hire won't have enough rocks to take it off the web. After all, Freedom of speech...Deal with it.

This reads more like an add for GoDaddy than a legitimate security posting.

Point taken, links off, I'm sticking to my guns.

If I sound a little biased, its because I am baffled at the amount of sheep who instantly rose to the occasion, and bashed MySpace and GoDaddy right away. No real insight into the event that actually took place just, "Big Bad MySpace, blah blah." I am surprised, especially when it comes to internet security, that there aren't more varying viewpoints and interesting responses. Somehow it parallels that whole "I'm a hick, go USA! screw immigrants, Bush Rules" attitude I'm not used to seeing when it comes to technology and the internet.

The information involved had been around the internet for over a week at the time of the takedown, and was still available on Google. Should Google have been taken down as well?

The fact of the matter is, the information was published on a mailing list called Full-Disclosure, which posts information about security breaches. seclists.org is one of many sites that archive this mailing list, and it wasn't even the primary mailing list archive for this particular mailing list.

There are plenty of otherways that MySpace could have responded to ths issue. Given that the passwords had been compromised a full nine days before the takedown of seclists.org and were already all over the internet, why hadn't MySpace simply disabled the accounts in question and required the owners to set new passwords, hmm? That would have been the responsible thing to do. Instead, GoDaddy shutdown an entire site. That's like saying you should use a Nuclear Bomb to take out a murderer or rapist. The amount of collateral involved was simply not a responsible use of power.

Regardless of whether or not you think that the Full-Disclosure list is justified in what it discusses (and there is an argument on other side there, mostly involving companies like Microsoft completely ignore requests from serious security research from fixing security problems which they report, until some people got fed up and decided to simply make the information available when companies like Microsoft refuse to fix their own bugs), that's really another issue. Whether or not Full-Disclosure is right, and people of good will have disagreed on the matter, what GoDaddy did was irresponsible and wrong.