Microsoft has settled with No-IP after the sinkhole debate which saw websites lose days of online presence.
According to an updated statement, Microsoft said that it has reached a settlement with No-IP’s parent Vitalwerks Internet Solutions. It said: “Microsoft has reviewed the evidence provided by Vitalwerks and enters into the settlement confident that Vitalwerks was not knowingly involved with the subdomains used to support malware. Those spreading the malware abused Vitalwerks’ services.
“Microsoft identified malware that had escaped Vitalwerks’ detection. Upon notification and review of the evidence, Vitalwerks took immediate corrective action allowing Microsoft to identify victims of this malware. The parties have agreed to permanently disable Vitalwerks subdomains used to control the malware.”
In the original story, Microsoft accused Vitalwerks Internet Solutions of distributing malware, and named two individuals who it said were directly responsible. In a response, No-IP said it was “very surprised by this” as it has a long history of proactively working with other companies when cases of alleged malicious activity were reported to it and said Microsoft never contacted it or asked it to block any subdomains.
Three days later, control of 24 subdomains were returned to No-IP. “In the process of redirecting traffic to its servers for malware detection, Microsoft acknowledges that a number of Vitalwerks customers were impacted by service outages as a result of a technical error. Microsoft regrets any inconvenience these customers may have experienced,” the statement concluded.
According to PC World, terms of the settlement were not disclosed.
