Cheap hosting giant Hostgator reported a couple of weeks ago that a high number of IP addresses used for email gateways were blacklisted across multiple networks for just about every web host worldwide.
When IPs are blacklisted in this manner, it leads to any email being sent from the IP undeliverable to the email black listing networks.
If you look at that August 23rd blog post on the cheap hosting provider's website, you'll see that numerous customers were up in arms over their Email Blacklisting was the issue , but was it entirely Hostgator's fault? Is there anything these clients could have done to protect themselves?
Hostgator Experiences Email Blacklisting Issues
The company says they were the first to successfully alleviate the situation, and they continued to offer other companies experiencing the same issue a helping hand.
Hostgator recently stated in a press release that the company is working to “…get our IPs removed from the blacklists…” further, the company is attempting to completely restore email network issues.
So what caused the problems in the first place? Many things, it seems, all stretching back to this past May, when exploits affecting Joomla vulnerabilities were discovered.
The vulnerabilities related to a component called JCE. But a workaround existed that allowed the installation and activation of malware, which in turn allowed mailing scripts to be uploaded and executed.
Once the mailing scripts were activated, a large-scale spamming campaign was initiated. This resulted in the worldwide email blacklisting of email gateway IPs. The network reporting the highest number of problems was AOL.
Who Is To Blame for Email Blacklisting ?
So is it totally Hostgator's fault? Not necessarily. The company continuously stresses the importance of user updates. Not updating scripts leave the door wide open for those seeking a bit of mischief. Basically, if users had simply updated the scripts when these updates were released, maybe it wouldn't have been as big an issue. They pointed out the ease with which customers can update scripts: one-click updates are available as soon as the version is released.
Looking To The Future
The cheap hosting company stated they have added more advanced monitoring capabilities, boasting they will be alerted of trouble like this in the future. Hostgator is asking all users to check back-ends in order to update any scripts. If users comply, the problem should be averted now and in the future. However, Hostgator customers aren’t all convinced that the problem lies with script updates.
Interestingly, Hostgator is the only company that was part of the problem to offer information about the issue. This, in turn, leads many to believe that it is, in fact, a Hostgator-specific issue.
Are you a Hostgator client? Are you having difficulty sending emails to clients?
