[SWANcom] SWAN Aspen Discovery catalog: update on performance issues last week

SWAN member libraries- The Aspen Discovery catalog on Wednesday, November 13th began to experience performance issues-slowness with search results, long waits for account login. This lasted until Friday when our hosting provider ByWater Solutions put in place a solution and the performance returned to normal. What was happening was our hosted Aspen server was undergoing a denial-of-service attack. This was not a security breach, so no patron data was affected. The server was undergoing a huge amount of service requests, potentially thousands per second from a bot network. ByWater blocked the origin of the denial-of-service attack, but it required blocking some IP addresses that have left some member libraries blocked from the Aspen catalog. We have resolved all but three libraries, with SWAN staff going on site or arranging consultations with these libraries: Richton Park, Brookfield, and River Grove. If your library is experiencing a blocked message when accessing the catalog, please open a ticket with SWAN using the link below. https://support.swanlibraries.net/form/94559 The details of this SWANcom are repeated on the news post below. https://support.swanlibraries.net/news/2024-11/94753 I apologize for not getting an explanation out sooner. We learned about the details this morning and I wanted to update everyone about the situation. We are coordinating with ByWater to put a long-term resolution in place to prevent a denial-of-service attack in the future. Regards, Aaron Aaron Skog Executive Director aaron@swanlibraries.net<mailto:aaron@swanlibraries.net> * 630-326-7022 My pronouns: he/him/his SWAN Library Services 800 Quail Ridge Drive, Westmont, IL 60559 swanlibraries.net<https://swanlibraries.net/> * catalog.swanlibraries.net<https://catalog.swanlibraries.net/>