Many customers will come across the Abuse Prevention department, sooner or later. A compromised server or a fraudulent sign-up by a new customer are things that commonly happen.
Such events will most likely end up with you receiving an abuse notification which may range from a simple notification regarding a port scan to a notification that you have ended up on a blacklist. Either way, abuse issues need to be solved in a timely matter to not only avoid further disruption of your own services but also to avoid harming other people.
In other words, it is not only important for the Abuse Prevention team but also for you that abuse notifications are resolved quickly. Not responding to notifications is the worst thing you can do in this situation and could potentially result in a block or suspension of services.
We don’t want to scare you though. The Abuse Prevention team is here to help. Besides informing our customers of the received notifications for their account(s), we also assist them with issues such as ending up on a blacklist or being compromised in some way and we give general advice on how to improve abuse handling in general.
So how can you ensure that your notifications are being handled in a timely matter and build a solid relationship with the Abuse Prevention team?
Manage your notifications
All notifications that a Leaseweb company receives are forwarded directly to its customers. This happens 24/7, 365 days a year. Since the launch of the new Abuse Handler tool, it is now mandatory to not only resolve the abuse issue but to also confirm that it has been resolved using our new interface. Make sure to keep track of “open” notifications and, in case you disagree or are not able to resolve the notification within the provided deadline for some other reason, make sure to communicate with the notifier and/or the Abuse Prevention team using the communication tab for the specific ticket within the interface.
Keep your contact details updated
In the Customer Portal please ensure you provide us with an email address you wish to use for abuse issues. As all notifications will be sent to this specific email address, it is crucial that this address is not only up to date but is also actively monitored to avoid any surprises!
The moment you update your contact details, all future notifications will immediately be directed to the newly provided email address.
Keep communicating
As with most things, communication is key when it comes to abuse handling. As already mentioned, it is very important to keep the Abuse Prevention team updated about the status of a notification.
All suspensions of IP addresses are done manually so communicating through the communication tab can help you should you encounter issues and/or are not able to meet the set deadline. Ignoring a notification and failing to communicate is a recipe for disaster which will guarantee a suspension of, for example, IP addresses. Make sure to always act in accordance with applicable law and the Leaseweb terms and conditions. And remember to contact us or the notifier if you have questions rather than ignoring notifications.
Record the solution
Recording the solution you reached in the Abuse Handler interface is mandatory. It enables us to inform the notifier that the abuse issue has been resolved and to understand any future issues you might encounter.
Stay professional
Even though we understand it’s never nice to receive an abuse notification, please keep in mind that we are simply trying to protect our network and keep it clean. In the end we want to make the internet a better and safer place for you too!
Also please understand that blocking an IP address or disabling a server is a last resort for us which only happens if you don’t resolve the abuse issue within the set deadline, don’t report the type of resolution and/or don’t inform us if you believe there is a valid reason for you to not act upon the abuse notification.
Should you encounter a loss of connectivity due to actions taken by us as a result of an abuse notification, please use the communication tab in the ticket interface to confirm the type of solution you implemented (also ticking the applicable solution box if not yet already done) and we’ll make sure you’re back on track in no time.