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Sony is reportedly using hacker methods to take its stolen data offline
Sony apparently isn't rolling over as hackers breach and pilfer its data. As a way to fight back, the company is using hacking methods of its own to combat illegal downloads of its property, according to Recode. The entertainment giant is harnessing Amazon Web Services (the backend that hosts Netflix, Instagram and many others) to launch a distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack on websites hosting the stolen assets, as Recode's sources tell it. Given how vocal the Guardians of Peace have been so far during their campaign against the outfit, we'll likely know just how accurate these reports are in short order. [Image credit: Shutterstock]
Star Wars: The Old Republic hit by DDoS attacks
If you were playing Star Wars: The Old Republic yesterday, you may very well have been hit with some lag and disconnections. The good news is that it's not a problem with your ISP; the bad news is that it appears to be yet another installment in the ongoing saga of irritating twits with nothing better to do than try to damage servers. Yes, it looks like this was another DDoS attack. Community manager Eric Musco's last update on Sunday night indicates that most of the issues should be resolved now, but it's possible that players may still experience intermittent connection difficulties. The representatives from BioWare have not officially stated that it was a DDoS attack, but it lines up perfectly with a DDoS attack made against Electronic Arts servers, leading to the accepted conclusion. [Thanks to Leiloni for the tip!]
Final Fantasy XIV has been besieged by DDoS attacks
If you've been playing Final Fantasy XIV over the past few evenings, you've probably noticed some issues: odd disconnections, login difficulties, things like that. Turns out it wasn't just some general server weirdness; apparently the game is being hit by DDoS attacks that are leading to heavy server load and all of the fun that comes along with it. The official post states that the attacks are being carried out by a currently unknown third party, with Square-Enix working to try to stop the attacks from all possible angles. It also apologizes for the issues that players are having. So the good news is that it's not just your connection, and the bad news is that someone decided that it's fun to be a jerk. Again.
Blizzard confirms World of Warcraft target of DDoS attack [UPDATED]
Update 5:50 a.m. PST: The servers are now down for maintenance, and the attack is over. If further ones happen, we'll announce accordingly. Update 8:15 p.m. PST The DDoS attacks continue. Blizzard is rolling out updates to the backend services at a breakneck pace right now, some of which are having unintended consequences and further complicating an already messy situation. However, it should be noted that this is to be expected when combating such a large scale attack. In no way is Blizzard responsible for the server outages on this scale -- responsibility rests with the script kiddies and bot net controllers. It's hard to know just how big this attack is, but with the sustained issues it's causing, and the severity of response from Blizzard, it's safe to assume that it's big. Battle.net is a hardened internet service that has withstood onslaughts like this before. For it to fail at such a critical juncture is nothing but catastrophic for the short term, and could have serious long term implications. We have some idea, shown above, of just how global this attack is. We'll update this post as the night continues, providing you with the latest. In the mean time -- we recommend you catch up on your lore, and not concern yourself with logging in. Blizzard also issued the following updated statement at 8:00 pm PST this evening: Blizzard Entertainment Our top priority continues to be service issues impacting performance and long wait times on North American realms. We recently pushed a server change that caused disconnects, and as a result login services are heavily impacted as players attempt to (re)log in to the game. If you experience issues logging in, please be patient and wait a few minutes before trying again. We're continuing to work to address other stability and latency issues as well as make additional improvements in game performance. source Updated by Adam Holisky. Original post follows after the break.
World of Warcraft hit by DDoS attack on expansion launch day
There's something about a major launch that brings out all of the cyber griefers, and Warlords of Draenor's launch day is no different. Blizzard confirmed this evening that the game was hit by direct denial of service (DDoS) attacks that have been causing issues, and the studio is taking steps to combat it, including temporarily lowering the maximum populations on servers: We're excited to finally launch Warlords of Draenor and explore this new world with you, but we know that the experience has been less than ideal as we approach our first full day of launch. Europe was our first region to launch, and we encountered a few issues due to the sheer number of players attempting to enter Draenor from a single location. We worked to add multiple new ways to access Draenor, and this helped ease some of the initial rush into the new expansion as players were able to access it from their capital cities, as well as from the shrines in Pandaria. While that solution helped a ton for our North American launch, we ran into a few other issues, including a distributed denial of service attack, that resulted in increased latency. Later this evening, Bashiok updated players on the ongoing server issues as they unfolded over US prime time: We're continuing to work toward greater realm stability and address the service issues impacting latency. Our current biggest hurdle is the concentration of players in specific areas and zones, and an unexpected effect of that concentration on the realm stability. We're continuing to maintain a lowered realm population cap to help with the stability, which is resulting in increased queue times. We're seeing some increase in individual zones drop which are causing localized player disconnections as we get into primetime in the Americas, and if someone is disconnected they will quite likely run into a queue to log back in. Work is progressing on improving realm stability through fixes targeting individual in-game issues, as well as on the backend game and network services.
Trion's games DDoSed again
E-thugs are at it again: Trion's MMO services are once again under attack. Last night, the official RIFT twitter account announced, "Ascended, our servers are experiencing a DDoS at the moment. We're working to restore network stability as quickly as possible." On the official forums, RIFT Executive Producer Bill "Daglar" Fisher confirmed that ongoing RIFT lag problems are compounded by the attacks: "Adding on top of the oddities that people are reporting, we've also been under DDOS attacks and our network team has been working to minimize the impacts of these." Overnight, even the first few pages (five, as of the time of this writing) of the RIFT general forums were flooded with spam from attackers. Several low-traffic forums on the ArcheAge boards have also been spammed early this morning. [With thanks to Omedon for the tip and apologies to Daglar for the temporary demotion!]
ArcheAge opens still more servers, promises compensation [Updated]
Trion's Scott Hartsman has delivered a "progress report" following another shaky weekend for ArcheAge's servers. He writes that patron queueing changes and three new North American servers (Ezi and Lucius Saturday and Calleil yesterday) have helped alleviate some though far from all of the login issues and queue times. To Europeans, he issues an apology, saying the new hardware for that region is still in customs and should arrive Tuesday. Daily restarts will also "flush out AFKs clogging the server," and he claims that around 10,000 botters and fraudsters have been recently banned. What about the reportedly long customer service wait times? "Our CS capacity has continuously been increasing even in the short time since launch. Chat wait times are about two thirds faster than what they were last week, even though the weekend's been the busiest time ArcheAge has seen as a whole. We're still pushing hard here to make sure even more people are wanting to help, and the next group of folks ready to help starts work first thing Monday morning." Hartsman notes that players will likely be compensated for last week's problems. "We are continuing to look into ways to make sure that everyone's made good for their troubles during this launch," he wrote. We have reached out to Trion to follow up. [Update #2: Hartsman has spoken to us about the game's launch troubles here.] [Update #1: Trion says the EU hardware has cleared customs early and is currently being set up.]
E-thugs target Destiny with DDoS attacks
Destiny has been made the target of a round of DDoS attacks, coming from the same group that previously took credit for executing a similar attack against Sony Online Entertainment and a bomb threat on John Smedley's plane (among other harassment). Players were told that the game was facing issues with logging in and matchmaking across the board, but Bungie declined to elaborate further at the time; the tweet on the matter has since been deleted. Our sister site Joystiq reports that the servers are up again. Hacker group Lizard Squad has taken credit for taking parts of the game offline, an attack which also affected Call of Duty: Ghosts. Congratulations are in order for Destiny, since nothing says you've arrived like people taking down your servers as part of a petty show of power.
E-thugs are actively attacking Trion's stable of MMOs, ArcheAge open beta 'going forward as planned'
Trion Community Manager Ocho has just posted an announcement to players of RIFT, ArcheAge, Defiance, and Trove that the studio is currently under a denial-of-service attack affecting some game services. He writes, Following last night's ISP maintenance, our overnight team has confirmed a DDOS that is currently aimed at Trion's services. We're actively working with our ISP partners and the authorities on both mitigating its effects and ensuring this group gets caught. Our live games are up and ArcheAge's open beta is going forward as planned. While the attack persists, there may be some effects on network stability and some website unavailability. You also may need to use the Resend Code option for our login security and RIFT's Coin Lock if the email doesn't reach you at first. We'll keep you informed as the situation evolves. If I'm bored of writing about the lame antics of script-kiddies, I'm sure MMO studios are livid about being forced to divert resources to combat them.
PSA: PSN gets knocked down again [Update: Back online]
The PlayStation Network servers are currently out of commission for the second time in as many days. Sony posted a notice to its official Twitter account that its engineers are "aware of connectivity issues" and "are working to resolve" them. PSN suffered an outage for the majority of Sunday thanks to an apparent DDoS attack (distributed denial of service). Sony noted that no personal information was accessed in the attack. b=Both PSN and Sony Entertainment Network were "impacted by an attempt to overwhelm our network with artificially high traffic," though it's unclear if that's also causing today's issues. We'll update this post when PSN is up and running again. Update: Sony said that "network connectivity is being restored," and thanks players for their patience. [Image: Sony]
World of Warcraft suffers DDoS attack, bomb threat issued to SOE
A collection of ne'er–do–wellers that go by the name of Lizard Squad inflicted significant denial of service attacks to large online gaming networks over the weekend. These attacks brought to a halt World of Warcraft and the entire Battle.net system, PSN, League of Legends, and Path of Exile. Service to all networks has so far been restored. The group also took things to a new level by issuing a bomb threat to Sony Online Entertainment's President John Smedley flight to San Diego. This, of course, triggers an FBI response and brings things to a whole new level of national security -- Sony is now not commenting any more due to the high level of the crime. Several people have said that claiming "national security" is an overreaction, however if this group really did manage to get an explosive device on to the executive's plane, then it means there are major holes in airport security. It's likely that this group of script kiddies just didn't realize how incredibly dumb it is to make such a threat, and will soon find themselves facing terrorism charges, with the DDoS charges just an after thought. One thing to keep in mind; your data in Blizzard's servers was never in any jeopardy. A DDoS attack is like turning on a thousand faucets in your bathtub all at once and watching the tub's drain not be able to handle the extra water flow. The tub is fine (as is your data), it's just completely useless until the faucets get turned off.
PSN resumes normal service, maintenance rescheduled
Following yesterday's distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack, Sony said this morning both the PlayStation Network and the Sony Entertainment Network are back online. Users can now resume game downloads, play games online, buy stuff off the PlayStation Store, use apps and all the other PSN services as normal. Furthermore, the PSN maintenance that was due to take place today is to be rescheduled. The company will announce the new date and time for the maintenance "shortly."
Head of Sony Online Entertainment's flight rerouted over concerns for explosives [Update]
The commercial flight of John Smedley, head of Sony Online Entertainment, has allegedly been rerouted due to Twitter users warning America Airlines that explosives are on board. These same users are also claiming responsibility for this morning's apparent DDoS attack on the PlayStation Network, explaining that part of the group's messaging is that Sony "should be paying for DDoS protection" with the revenue earned from PlayStation Plus. Smedley tweeted earlier today that he would be flying to San Diego, later adding that his flight had been rerouted to Phoenix, seemingly due to concerns about "security and our cargo." Smedley's tweets match the flight pattern of AA Flight 362, shown in the above image from Flight Aware as well as AA's online records. Update: The FBI has released a statement to Game Informer. It's not much of a statement, but it shows the authorities are at least aware of the situation. "Today AA Flight 362 traveling from Dallas to San Diego was diverted to Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport. The flight landed without incident. Passengers were safely removed from the plane," the Bureau writes. "The investigation is still ongoing." [Image: Flight Aware]
PlayStation Network goes down following cyberattacks (update 2: Xbox as well)
Sony may be experiencing a few unpleasant flashbacks this weekend. Both the PlayStation Network and Sony Online Entertainment (SOE) are slowly recovering from a denial of service attack that flooded their server connections, kicking many gamers offline. The group claiming responsibility, Lizard Squad, reportedly started out bombarding servers run by Blizzard (World of Warcraft), Grinding Gear Games (Path of Exile) and Riot Games (League of Legends) before swinging its attention Sony's way.
Old School RuneScape temporarily changes death penalty due to DDoS attacks
The brutal DDoS attacks that have hit RuneScape over the past week have caused the developers of the 2007-era edition to rework death mechanics until the threat has passed. This "temporary change" to death mechanics allow players a half-hour to see and retrieve their items outside of PvP combat; in PvP, the penalties stay as is. "Even with this change, we would strongly suggest that you do not partake in dangerous or high-risk content such as PvP or high level PvM, and as always, don't risk anything you're not prepared to lose whilst these network issues are ongoing," the devs cautioned.
RuneScape hit with denial-of-service attacks
Jagex has posted to its official forums the news that both modern RuneScape and its classic servers are in the midst of service disruption attacks. Moderator Tyran explained: As you may be aware, we're currently experiencing service disruption across both game and web services, this is affecting both RuneScape and Old School RuneScape. We are aware that RuneScape (as well as other games) are being targeted by attacks which are causing connectivity issues for our players. We are doing everything we can to mitigate any impact on your gameplay experience - our Systems Team are currently working to improve stability across our core hosting platform to improve the situation. The studio warns players to avoid high-risk content where items might be lost, but customer service will investigate items already compromised by the outages. A large-scale rollback is not currently planned; Moderator Ronan posted, "Unfortunately, Old School RuneScape does not have the tool required to roll back or to confirm what items were lost by players and so it will not be possible to refund any lost items."
CloudFlare donates tech to stop politically-sensitive sites from being knocked offline
If protecting yourself from hackers wasn't tough enough, there's another crippling internet attack that knocks websites completely offline while you're a target: a denial of service attack. That's why a company called CloudFare has launched Project Galileo, a free service that helps "protect politically and artistically important organizations and journalists against attacks that would otherwise censor their work." CloudFlare has been in the business of protecting sites for quite some time, operating as a content delivery network that offers DDoS protection, but only to paid customers.
DDoS attack wounds Operation Supply Drop charity drive
Clearly, no good deed goes unpunished, as hackers have targeted Operation Supply Drop, a charity effort to send games and gaming-related items to American soldiers overseas. "Well, that took 26 minutes, but the Operation Supply Drop website is already down," wrote the fundraiser's organizers on the Operation Supply Drop Facebook page following what appears to be a distributed denial of service, or DDoS attack. That Facebook update was posted at about 9AM ET, after which the Operation Supply Drop website returned briefly, but was then shuttered by organizers anticipating further attacks. "Odds are this will happen again over the next 24 hours," they explained in a letter to donors. Unfortunately, the Operation Supply Drop website serves as the main hub for those wanting to donate. While it remains down, the fundraiser will continue, but those hoping to aid the cause should send PayPal donations to donations at operationsupplydrop dot com. Alternately, if you'd rather receive something for your donation, you can pick up this Operation Supply Drop poster, designed by the Halo auteurs at Rooster Teeth. All proceeds from the sale of those posters will go directly to Operation Supply Drop. [Image: Operation Supply Drop]
Hacker attacks on websites shot up 75 percent last quarter
Akamai Technologies' State of the Internet report for Q4 2013 has just arrived, and one stat stands out like a bad rash: DDoS (denial of service) attacks were up 75 percent over last quarter, and 23 percent from the year before. Most of the targets were enterprises, and Akamai said that the likelihood of a repeat hack is one in three -- a 35 percent bump over last year. Such numbers have no doubt fueled demand for services like Google's Project Shield, which shelter businesses behind massive cloud servers that can easily absorb an onslaught. As for the countries of origin? The dubious winner of that prize (by far) was China with 43 percent of all attacks, followed by the US and Canada. The latter nation saw a not-very-polite 2500 percent bump in DDoS attacks over last year -- hopefully not a trend.
Aura Kingdom hacked and emails stolen... or maybe not [Updated]
Recent hacking of Aura Kingdom apparently resulted in stolen email addresses that are being used to pester users players are reporting that they're getting invitations sent to their Aeria Games email address from an individual asking them to join an Aura Kingdom private server. Fortunately Aeria Games does not store credit card information, so it seems as though that information is safe. An Aeria Games GM responded to the claims by saying that the company is investigating the issue: "Thanks for reporting this. We'll look closely into this reports. We will let you know if we need more information. Also note, we do not process any payments, this is done through the service you utilize to buy AP. So this is not something we store." [Thanks to Thomas for the tip!] [Update: Aeria has contacted us to update us about the situation and provide an official statement: "We have investigated this issue and would like to confirm that we have found no evidence of our servers or players' account information being compromised. This includes the email addresses that were reported to have been affected in this article. We have, however, found potential security vulnerabilities through third parties unaffiliated with Aeria Games. We caution against providing contact information to these unaffiliated entities and encourage all players to change their passwords on a regular basis to maintain account security."]
