On August 28th, the Apache Software Foundation made the headlines for all the wrong reasons after hackers compromised its servers and gained root privileges.
Apache is at pains to point out that
"at no time were any Apache Software Foundation code repositories, downloads, or users put at risk by this intrusion."
That’s obviously good news, as the latest studies show that some 46% of the world’s web servers are running on Apache.
What really impresses me, however, is how well Apache handled the potentially highly embarrassing incident – taking swift action and keeping their users informed via blog updates.
Indeed, they have now published a detailed incident report, explaining what happened and what changes they are putting in place to prevent such an attack from succeeding in future.
Apache explains in their blog post that they “believe that providing a detailed account of what happened will make the internet a better place, by allowing others to learn from our mistakes.”
So bravo to Apache for responding to the problem rapidly and with openness, proving it is possible to turn a potentially bad story into a positive experience.
