Realtor.com and Top Producer Back Online After Two Day Internet Battle

Move, Inc. reports that it is continuing to combat the distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack, which has interrupted its websites' operations since it began mid-day June 17. Move's technical team is working around-the-clock with the Prolexic division of Akamai Technologies, Inc., a leading DDoS mitigation service provider; other Internet security experts; and its network service providers to mitigate the attack and quickly restore operations.

In connection with the attack, Move received a ransom demand, which it did not respond to. DDoS attacks on Internet-based businesses and associated ransom demands are unfortunately becoming more common. Move is consulting with appropriate federal law enforcement officials and other technology companies that have been targets of DDoS attacks in recent months to review best practices for responding. Law enforcement is working to determine the attack's origin.

DDoS attacks are sent by people or botnets, which are Internet-connected programs that work on tasks.

Move operates realtor.com®, the official website of the National Association of REALTORS®. The DDoS attack is driving massive amounts of traffic from external sources to Move's data center, making realtor.com®, Top Producer® services, and Move's other Internet services available intermittently. The attacks also have targeted and impacted the redundant aspects of the company's systems.

Although Move has defended itself from DDoS attacks in past, the scale of this week's attack is large enough to impact the company's network service providers and require the services of Prolexic. At this time, Move has no evidence that this attack includes or has resulted in any compromise of data or other content on its websites.

"Our focus is to restore operations as quickly and securely as possible to provide consumers access to the most accurate residential listings available, and to support our real estate industry customers," said John Robison, Move's chief technology officer. "We appreciate our customers' understanding as we combat this attack on our services."

Move is working 24/7 to migrate its Internet services to a different network architecture to increase their protection. Move operates a large suite of websites so its migration plan is complex and will take several days to complete, which is typical for companies under a DDoS attack of this magnitude.