Billing Portal Outage and Security Audit
Late on 10th January we were alerted of a potential security breach of the web server which hosts our primary site and helpdesk/billing portal. We are currently assessing the situation and undergoing a security audit to contain and resolve the situation.
As a precaution, we have temporarily disabled our Client Panel whilst we perform audits and upgrades. Note that we do not store financial information such as credit card details on our systems.
The situation is still developing. As an additional precaution, we have reset all client Plesk panel passwords. To gain access to your Plesk panel, please perform a forgotten password request. Weak passwords will no longer be allowed.
Ongoing Updates – Please Check Here for Updates
Check here for updates. Use our Live Support facility to speak to our technical staff for urgent support issues.
We are launching our New Billing and Helpdesk Portal today
16/01 13:00 – Our new Billing and Helpdesk Portal is now online! Please test your login, have a look around. Let us know about any outstanding issues. Or contact Live Support if you prefer as always. Thank you so much for your patience during this service outage. Please continue to be patient with our support staff who are working very hard to help with your problems.
16/01 06:00 – We are pleased to announce that the new Billing Portal installation, upgrade and migration is complete! Before we go live we are awaiting the full propagation of a DNS change. In the meantime we are testing every feature. We do not expect any further issues and our objective is to activate the new portal at approximately midday today. Our helpdesk will be back in just a few hours. Please continue using our Live Support for urgent issues. Thank you for your patience during this upgrade.
14/01 – We have restored nameservers on all affected domains, you should start to see your website and email services come back online within a few hours, please note that it may take up to 24 hours for the nameserver changes to fully propagate.
13/01 -Friday/Saturday – We continue to apply custom name servers to the impacted domains which were left unlocked by clients. We will continue this process through Saturday. Once again, please contact Live Support for urgent issues only.
12/01 16:00 – The new billing server hardware is in place and migrations will start overnight. We have replaced everything. We are projecting to have the client billing service back online within 24 hours. Thank you for your patience.
11/01 23:00 – Web Hosting and Email – We are currently working through all accounts and are bringing them online as we can. Most accounts are not affected. We suspect it may take a number of days to fully complete our audit of every account.
11/01 20:00 – Name servers have been applied to each unlocked domain according to the server it was on. If you were using custom nameservers (eg. your domain was not parked) please send the correct nameserver settings to nameservers@uk-cheapest.co.uk.
11/01 12:00 – Unlocked Domains – A number of domains that were not locked had their nameservers changed without permission. If your nameservers are not correct, please email the correct settings to nameservers@uk-cheapest.co.uk. Please include the domain names and the nameservers that you would like applied to each domain in your email. Please ensure that the email is sent from your account email address.
Your website and data are not affected. If your site is offline, please advise the Live Support advisor of your domain name and we will investigate further. Please note at this time, basic support will be limited. Only contact us if your site is down or urgent.
As a precaution, all WHMCS and Plesk Client passwords have been reset. Please do a forgotten password request to set your own password before contacting Live Support.
Once again, thank you for your patience during this difficult time.
Kind Regards,
UKC Support Team
