This is a story that began 18 years ago. If you are a long time gamer like me, you know it well: Company starts developing a game, company decides the game is not up to standard, company decides to scrap game. But then something happens …
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Gamers, you better dig out your good old offline games: some of the most popular online gaming networks are getting attacked by hackers. On Sunday, August 24th2014, a group which calls themselves the “Lizard Squadâ€:
They have started attacking Sony’s PlayStation network (PSN) though which the company sells all of their online games and which serves as a hub for all multiplayer games. The method used: DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service). Sony, being burned in 2011 by a massive hack attack, immediately issued a statement saying that no customer data was stolen this time and that it’s back up since Monday August 25th.
On Monday, however, the group moved on to Blizzard, the makers of World of Warcraft, and Riot Games, the ones behind games like League of Legends and continued to attack other sites. Here’s the latest:
PSN Network: Is back online, according to their statement on Monday, August 25th. Lizard attacked PSN for what they perceive to be a lack of PSN customer service: “Sony, yet another large company, but they aren’t spending the waves of cash they obtain on their customers’ PSN service. End the greed.â€
Blizzard: Battle.net, the online service behind World of Warcraft, seemed to be heavily affected on Sunday, but was in the process of stabilization on Monday. But other than the fact that Battle.net was a target, the group doesn’t seem to offer any reasons for hacking – other than their typical “lulz†by asking users to write the groups name on their forehead while playing Hearthstone and Dota 2 on Twitch.
Xbox Live: in addition to the networks above, Microsofts Xbox Live network has been hit, too – users should regularly check the status here:
However, the negative “icing on the cake†came when the group announced that they’ve seen “reports of explosives†on board an American Airlines flight from Dallas to San Diego carrying Sony Online Entertainment president John Smedley.
American Airlines immediately redirected the plane, which just goes to show how much of an impact this series of DDoS attacks and its publicity just had on people.
For now: no! DDoS attacks are not traditional hacking attacks, but rather “clogging the Internet toilet†by which a server gets hits with hundreds of thousands of requests. So far, there appears to be no evidence of an actual hacking attack. We will keep you posted, but other than the major inconvenience for gamers, there seems to be no data compromised!
