Minister wants swift solution to .my site outages.
Updated: The domain service was restored at 3pm on Saturday (June 16).
With the purported outage of the .my domain this weekend, users of Malaysia’s online banking sites are advised to be cautious with submitting personal information.
A report on Lowyat.net said that DNS servers which handle the .my domain names appear to have gone offline since yesterday and that this affects all .my domain websites.
While some sites are still functional via DNS cached entries, it said these sites with .my domains will become inaccessible once the caches expire.
“Most of Malaysia’s online banking sites are hosted on the .com.my domains, so until this issue is resolved, we advise extreme caution on submitting your credentials to any online services that are hosted on the .com.my and .my domain names,” the report said.
The outage also affects mobile banking apps and several online payment channels, it added. MYNIC Berhad, the Malaysian registrar of .my domains, confirmed earlier today in a posting on Twitter that they are experiencing technical issues with the DNS system.
“We feel sorry for any inconvenience to the customers.
“We are working hard to resolve this issue as soon as possible. More details will be issued from time to time,” it said.
Lowyat.net noted that MYNIC has had issues with DNS hacking and DNS poisoning in the past.
“Without detailed information, we cannot ascertain whether this is just a harmless outage of the service, or if it is something more sinister,” the report said.
Meanwhile, Communications and Multimedia Minister Gobind Singh Deo wants a swift solution to the .my site outages.
Responding to users on Twitter alerting him to the issue, Gobind said he has been informed by the relevant agencies, which he said were working to restore the local Domain Name System (DNS) to full functionality.
“Action is being taken by MYNIC and MCMC to overcome (the issue). Hopefully, it will be settled quickly. Additional information after (I) receive the detailed report later,” he wrote on Twitter.