[General] SSH Access

As some of you may be aware SSH access on our servers has been disabled. This is in response to a recent security exploit that has been making the rounds throughout the Internet. There have been a lot of rumblings throughout the Internet and with experts regarding this particular issue. It is thought that SSH plays a role in how the exploit works. As a precautionary move we have disabled SSH access on all of our servers.

We are in the middle of reviewing some security policies and considering making changes to our SSH set up. The issue surrounding this exploit has caused that process to be put on the back burner for the time being while we focus our attention on this exploit and what can be done to prevent damage to our servers.

We don’t have a time table for when SSH will be re-enabled. It is not our intention to close SSH access completely, but it has been a topic that has been discussed. The only way I can really see SSH access being closed completely is if we continue to see exploits that are tied to SSH throughout the rest of the year. Right now we are focusing on understanding this exploit better and making sure that our servers are completely safe before re-enabling SSH. How long that will take is where I am uncertain. There’s just not a lot of information regarding this exploit and we have to do everything possible to insure that our servers stay safe and secure. I won’t enable SSH on the servers until I am satisfied that the issue has been patched, explained, or otherwise properly addressed.

I do apologize for the inconvenience that this has caused our users. I just want to assure you that we are doing this to safeguard our servers and provide a level of security to prevent bad things from happening to our servers and to your accounts.

Scott