Microsoft has clarified its decision to use third-party Akamai`s network to defend its sites against massive server attacks after the Blaster worm infected computers worldwide, saying it still runs all its own sites and uses Akamai only to distribute server allocation and response to attacks.
A statement from the company`s SA offices reads that Microsoft`s Internet properties, including Hotmail, MSN and Microsoft.com, all still run on Windows Server 2003. Akamai is being used for name resolution multiplexing and routing only, Microsoft states.
Akamai`s caching system, which reportedly caches copies of Web sites on many distributed servers in many locations, can speed up server response. In this case, just as a distributed denial-of-service attack uses many machines to attack a single server, such a caching or load-balancing and routing method can present a distributed defence.
"In order to provide uninterrupted support for Microsoft customers throughout the Blaster worm situation, [Microsoft] has contracted a third-party distributed firewall service (ie a distributed TCP aggregation service) between incoming requests and Microsoft`s Web sites [which support] downloads of the Blaster worm patch," Microsoft states.
"This third-party [Akamai] is a major global bandwidth aggregator and maintains a broadly distributed network with bandwidth far in excess of the capacity of any single enterprise. Microsoft is using this third-party`s extensive worldwide network to distribute the massive traffic that is being illegally directed at Microsoft by hackers.
"This illegal activity is generating a massive and highly unnatural traffic pattern. Microsoft is leveraging the third-party`s network capacity, geographic distribution and diversity to disperse the traffic and filter the malicious bogus requests."
An international Microsoft spokesperson has been quoted as saying: "Microsoft`s main concern is doing whatever it takes to help ensure customers can get to the Blaster worm patch to protect their computers."
The Blaster worm, which struck the Internet last week, was set with a payload designed to trigger last Saturday, to flood a patch update site with a massive denial-of-service attack.
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