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07 Dec 2007
Fasthosts has apologised to customers who were left without services after the company changed their passwords.
The web hosting firm was forced to take action following a security breach, and new passwords have been posted out to customers.
However, many complained that they have been unable to update their websites while they wait for the passwords to appear.
"Fasthosts would like to apologise once again for the inconvenience to customers affected by the recent password changes," a company statement said.
"Unfortunately, the measures were necessary to fully ensure our customers' websites and data were secure."
The hosting company said that it is working with all affected customers to help them receive their new passwords as swiftly as possible.
The password change was applied to a significant portion of the Fasthosts customer base who had not changed their passwords following an announcement about a network breach in October.
Fasthosts said that the change had been necessary because a very small number of customers who did not change their passwords had their FTP or website space compromised.
"Affected customers may have incurred a delay in being able to access their Fasthosts Control Panel, for which we apologise," the firm said.
"Certain customers who did not change their passwords as was previously recommended, and whose websites use automated databases, may experience downtime as a result of their database passwords being automatically changed.
"We apologise unreservedly to those customers affected for any inconvenience caused during the issuing of new passwords."
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Do you agree?
The fuss
The fuss is because it locked many people out of their sites. It also disabled sites as it reset database passwords too. Fasthosts could have send out passwords which became active some days after the passwords were sent to minimize downtime. If the security risk was so high, fasthosts should not have initially relied on customers changing their passwords. Often this can be a time intensive action and so many can be expect to play the chance game
Posted by: Matthew Adams 08 Dec 2007
Why all the Fuss?
Fasthost notified their customers back in October and anyone with any sense should have acted then. This recent action is due to the apathy of some moaning customers who I am sure would also be the first to complain were their accounts compromised. Lets all be grateful that FastHosts did not act like the British Government and just not tell anyone!
Posted by: David Williams 07 Dec 2007
Websites taken offline - not just locked out
Actually, many people were not told to change their login details before they were locked out. Once their details were changed, they were also unable to access customer support except via telephone, where one has to wait over 1.5 hours in queue, if one is lucky enough to get through to the queue itself. Furthermore, not only are people locked out and unable to update their websites, many websites have ceased to appear altogether, causing losses to the companies using Fasthosts. Nearly all the Fasthost clients I know have been forced to go to a new domain host in order to just have their websites visible again.
Posted by: Fasthost User 07 Dec 2007
Lack of communication
I was one of those 'apathetic and moaning customers'. Reading other forums many of us did not know about the October breach, therefore did not take any action. Fasthosts did not write, email or post any info on their site to let many of their customers know the situation. When the passwords were reset last week, there was again no mention of this on their website, no response to email requests (their support email address had been removed from the site) and a 4 hr wait on the telephone. Whatever processes Fasthosts have in place clearly hasn't worked for all customers and to turn round and blame customers for their own lack of communication is a shoddy excuse for service.
Posted by: Damian 07 Dec 2007