Afrigather Whereas early experiences from a number of publications claimed the web site of Warranty Belief Financial institution (GTBank) was taken offline due to a cybersecurity assault, the reality could also be loads much less dramatic. The financial institution’s web site was offline from Tuesday night time till the early hours of Thursday as IT groups labored to resolve the problem.
4 individuals with data of the matter advised TechCabal that the downtime was brought on by an issue with the web site’s area identify system (DNS) configuration.
“They’d points with their area identify registration, they usually needed to make some modifications or transfer it to a unique area identify service,” a Chief Expertise Officer (CTO) at considered one of Nigeria’s greatest fintechs advised TechCabal. He requested to not be named so he might converse freely.
These feedback recommend that GTBank forgot to resume possession of its area identify. It might have introduced a chance for unknown individuals to purchase the area identify within the hope that the corporate can be keen to pay a big quantity.
“If GTBank has already patented its [website] identify, they merely have to report the matter to the area host, and after a number of processes they will retrieve the location,” stated an online developer who requested to not be named. “It’s not a matter that may be merely resolved in a day. It’s going to take time.”
GTBank didn’t instantly reply to a request for feedback.
Lapses in renewing an organization’s area identify are frequent. In 2015, Google missed the deadline to resume possession of “google.com,” and a former worker purchased it for $12. Google, which additionally owned the area service supplier, Google Domains, rapidly reversed the transaction.
Microsoft additionally forgot to resume possession of the hotmail.co.uk web site in 2003.
“The custodian of the e-mail tied to the area identify could have merely stopped working on the financial institution and didn’t hand it over to another person,” one developer advised TechCabal. He additionally advised that the paperwork concerned in vendor fee could have delayed the renewal.
On the time of this publication, some GTBank clients might entry the web site whereas others couldn’t. The issues with entry could possibly be linked to DNS propagation, which refers back to the time it takes for modifications to the area file to take impact throughout all servers.
It may be brought on by a safety characteristic known as HTTP Strict Transport Safety (HSTS) that forces browsers to connect with the web site solely over a safe encrypted connection. Banks use this characteristic to safe buyer info.
