Millions of websites hosted by GoDaddy (including godaddy.com and godaddy hosted emails) went down today from 2pm EST to around 7pm EST due to a DNS service outage, which one alleged Anonymous leader is claiming as his handiwork.
Technically, three of GoDaddy's DNS (Domain Name System) servers failed to resolve as a result of the hack, which Twitter user @anonymousown3r has called his doing. Shortly after GoDaddy sites started dropping by the hundreds of thousands, he tweeted, "#tangodown godaddy.com by @anonymousown3r." Businesses all over the world struggled to recover their online presence during the five hour outage.
For the vast majority of clients hosting with GoDaddy, the DNS issue wasn't fixable because GoDaddy holds all the MX records for these sites, and users usually have to log into the GoDaddy site in order to switch DNS providers. While the site was down, millions of site owners had to sit on their hands and wait for the GoDaddy techs to eventually get those servers back online and functioning.