A distress signal sender and a distress signal receiver receive beacon-name generation parameters and generate a beacon name based at least in part on the received parameters, the beacon name representing a network location. Responsive to detecting an unexpected lack of access to network communications, the distress signal sender sends a beacon message to the generated beacon name, the beacon message describing a security state of the client. The distress signal receiver detects the beacon message sent by the distress signal sender, and responsive to receiving the beacon message, performs a remedial action.