Dean: During a DDoS attack, from the customer's perspective, all of Mad Mimi's services are disrupted except for customer support. DDoS attacks effectively sever the connection between the application and the web.
NPC: How does Mad Mimi keep customers updated about the resolution?
Dean: As soon as there's any downtime, we take to Twitter (https://twitter.com/madmimi) and Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/madmimi) and post updates as well as answer direct customer questions. I've found social media is the most effective way to broadcast the news about both issues and resolutions. It's pretty easy to follow up with customers there too. We're also still active on email during any downtime and, during a DDoS attack, we're also able to post to our blog, which we've done when attacked.
How long does it usually take to get the service back to normal?
This is a tricky question. It ranges between no time at all and a number of hours. The attacks are ever changing.
Is client data safe? Should customers make a local backup regularly? How?
Yes, client data is safe. During a DDoS attack, there's no actual security breach. To use an analogy, a DDoS attack is like a crowd blocking a doorway – everything inside is safe but you can't get through the crowd until they disperse. Customers should always backup regularly anyways, simply to be cautious and the easiest method is to simply export a CSV or Excel file of your contact list on your own drive. I recommend periodically exporting your lists.
Who are some of the biggest brands who trust your service?
Mad Mimi is used by over 180,000 businesses ranging from yoga studios, musicians, photographers and restaurants to universities, corporations and huge web properties. We treat every customer as equally important though and the service is exactly the same whether you have 70 subscribers or 70,000 or 7 million subscribers.
