November 2012 Summaries

On November 29, 2012, all internet traffic from Syria to the rest of the world stopped for approximately two minutes. This was a complete blackout, unlike previous instances where some requests still trickled out. The Syrian Minister of Information claimed that the government did not shut down the internet but rather it was due to cable being cut by terrorists. However, CloudFlare's investigation suggests this is unlikely as all connectivity to Syria was cut simultaneously. The country has four physical cables connecting it to the rest of the Internet, and for a whole-country outage, all four would have had to be cut at once, which seems improbable. Instead, the systematic withdrawal of routes indicates that this was done through updates in router configurations rather than a physical failure or cable cut. The last sites accessed by Syrians before their internet access was cut off included a photo sharing blog, a Syrian news site, a Muslim-oriented social network, and a porn site. Internet access for Syria appears to have been at least partially restored on December 1, 2012.

The text discusses the implementation of two-factor authentication at CloudFlare, a company that provides internet security services. It highlights the challenges faced in choosing an appropriate method for two-factor authentication and eventually settling on Authy's Time-based One-time Password Algorithm (TOTP) due to its superior features compared to Google Authenticator. The author emphasizes the importance of account security, especially after his own hacking experience, and how two-factor authentication is not a complete solution but an essential part of it.

Cloudflare introduces two-factor authentication for all its accounts in an effort to enhance website and account security. The feature, developed with the help of Authy, offers an extra layer of protection by requiring users to provide a unique, 7-digit authentication token generated by the Authy app on their mobile devices along with their email address and password when logging into their Cloudflare accounts. This additional step ensures that even if someone knows your email and password, they still cannot access your account without the authentication token. The feature is optional but recommended for all users who want to improve their account security.

The Middle East conflict has escalated into a significant cyber warfare with both Israeli and Palestinian organizations being targeted by cyber attacks. CloudFlare, an internet security company, found itself in the unique position of protecting websites from both sides. Following a ceasefire on November 21, 2012, there was a surge in Layer 7 cyber attacks against both Israeli and Palestinian sites. The data gathered does not allow for attribution of the source of these attacks, but third-party organizations like Anonymous have claimed responsibility for some of them. Despite facing criticism from supporters on both sides, CloudFlare continues to ensure that all ideas can find equal footing online.

In an interview with SEO.com's Vice President of Technology, Derek Perkins, he shares his top three tips for improving website SEO: use WordPress and WordPress SEO, focus on great content, and find good website hosting that can scale to meet traffic demands. He also debunks misperceptions about SEO, such as the need to write specifically for search engines or having unnaturally high keyword density. Perkins suggests resources like SEO forums and SEOmoz for site owners looking to better their SEO rank. The most important thing site owners can do is set specific targets for content and avoid common mistakes like incorrect page titles or malformed HTML structure. In the last five years, SEO has shifted from link building to strategic, content-driven approaches due to changes in search engine algorithms. Google remains the front runner in the search space, with Bing gaining some ground but still playing second fiddle.

CloudFlare has adopted Go for some production systems due to its high-performance and concurrency capabilities. The company's package library provides the necessary tools for writing efficient programs quickly. As a result, Go has become an important part of CloudFlare Engineering, leading them to actively hire people with knowledge or interest in learning Go. They are planning to open source some of their Go programs and are seeking more individuals to contribute to their Go code base. Some of the projects currently using Go include PKI tools, Railgun web optimizer, a high-performance DNS server, and a curl-like tool for SPDY. CloudFlare has also hosted the GoSF meetup in the past.

The text discusses various businesses that use CloudFlare, an internet security service. These include the San Francisco Marathon, Storify, Runa Tea, SEO.com, Zopim, and Russian photographer Ekaterina Dokuchaeva. Each business shares their positive experience with CloudFlare, highlighting its ease of use, scalability, security features, and ability to improve website performance.

On November 14th, a meetup will be co-hosted by Kristin Tarr and Braintree, an online and mobile commerce payments platform. The event aims to address questions about choosing the right payment provider, debunk payment myths, and provide insights into future trends in the industry. Various payment solutions for different business types and growth stages will be discussed. Speakers from Braintree include Charity Kittler and Jenna Wyer. Refreshments such as pizza and beer will be provided. Doors open at 6:30 PM, with presentations starting at 7 PM. RSVP is required for the meetup.

On November 8th, 2012, there will be a CloudFlare London Meetup at the Old Coffee House on Beak St. The event is open to everyone, not just CloudFlare customers. Attendees can enjoy beer and exchange ideas with three CloudFlare employees: Dane, John, and Ian. To participate, sign up through the provided link.

On November 5th, 2012, Google experienced a limited outage due to route leakage caused by Moratel, an Indonesian ISP. The incident resulted in misrouting of traffic and impacted around 3-5% of the Internet's population. Route leakage occurs when routes are announced beyond their intended scope, causing traffic to be misdirected. In this case, it was likely due to a configuration error or trust model failing at Moratel. The issue was resolved after Moratel stopped announcing the incorrect routes and Google's services were restored within minutes. This event highlights the importance of network engineering teams monitoring routing and connectivity continuously to ensure optimal performance for websites.

On November 2, 2012, Matthew Prince from Cloudflare shared that their company is based in San Francisco but serves a global audience. They analyzed data from logins to their website and found that their customers are distributed across the Americas, Europe, and Asia. This indicates that ensuring fast and safe websites is a universal concern worldwide. In just six weeks, they sent t-shirts to customers in 67 countries, demonstrating Cloudflare's global community working together to improve the internet.

CloudFlare, in partnership with GlobalSign, has improved SSL performance across the web by making GlobalSign's CRL and OCSP requests the fastest on the internet. By serving these requests from CloudFlare's global infrastructure, the average response time for SSL checks has decreased from 500ms to under 100ms. This saves approximately a year and a half of time daily that people would have otherwise spent waiting for web pages to load. The enhancement benefits sites using GlobalSign SSL certificates regardless of whether they are on CloudFlare's network, promoting increased web security and performance protocols like SPDY.