Massive DDoS attack fells WebCentral

According to a statement issued by the Queensland-based company, the attack began on Saturday at 4pm, affecting all customers with systems located in its primary data centre. WebCentral's secondary data centre was also knocked offline briefly by the attack when fail-safe systems began re-directing the DDoS traffic to the secondary site. WebCentral was able to restore full service by 4am on Sunday morning; however, the company experienced another shorter outage today, according to its chief executive, Lloyd Ernst.

"The outage today ranged from about 35 minutes to 120 minutes," he told ZDNet Australia . "We are getting the authorities involved in this investigation."

According to Ernst, the attack was conducted using a technique that the company had not seen before, but he would not be drawn on the precise nature of the bombardment.

"The attacks were unique," he said. "We've been asked [by the authorities] not to give out too many details."

DDoS attacks against hosting providers are very common, Ernst said, adding that circumventing garden-variety DDoS attacks is not that difficult and "is something that we spend a lot of time and energy on".

The company is not anticipating any further outages.