Did you know FTC Files Complaints Against GoDaddy For Failing To Secure Website Hosting Services for Years

 

The FTC filed a complaint against leading website hosting service provider GoDaddy recently. It expressed displeasure with its negligence in providing users with a robust and secure service, putting many at risk.

The company which has a client base of over 5 million users advertised its offerings as the most fast and secure connection across the board. However, after scrutiny by the FTC, it was observed that it failed to inventory assets, carry out routine software updates, or make use of multifactor authentication. This also includes not properly monitoring security threats.

These breaches caused a major loophole in security and privacy during the years 2019 to 2022 during which hackers got unauthorized access to clients’ information and pages. Therefore, the regulator claims that it’s barring the company from rolling out misrepresentations about compliance and safety.

The order is also forcing GoDaddy to create and use a more robust security program that keeps safety in check, ensures privacy, and also makes sure the integrity of these website-hosting offerings is top-notch. Furthermore, it ordered the company to use separate auditors to conduct routine reviews of the security program.

Major components in this security program entail putting out responsible personnel and using tools such as SIEM to report any security mishaps or incidents. Other than that, it wants GoDaddy to install multi-factor authentication and carry out system audit logs among other steps to keep cybersecurity in check.

Any failure to follow the recommendations could give rise to a civil penalty of nearly $52,000. The complaint shared from 2020 spoke about the company having visibility of only 15k devices out of the mega 450k it identified. There was a lot of inconsistent patch management taking place with no centralized systems to make sure critical updates were used.

The FTC shared more on how it wants users to ask the web hosting domain some queries as a part of a new advisory. As per the watchdog, the more people are aware of their security and privacy rights, the better it is for companies like GoDaddy to stay aware of necessary changes.

After all, every individual’s website is a reliable tool for sales and marketing. It’s like your brand with all repositories for data. So services like web hosting can not compromise on security.