Server instability and DDOSing have been making the game unplayable since 7.05

What is SE doing to prevent these crashes and disconnects that are omnipresent? I craft my own food and pots and every week i lose at least 4 groups to server death wasting both my time waiting to fill, doing a duty that is impossible because 4-8 pokeballs and losing the consumable it adds up to quite a lot of wasted time.

And there's never been an announcement on the log in screen about what's being done? Is anything being done?

But they're taking "countermeasures" ! Lmao

Cant wait for the SE defense force to come tell us "ITS NOT SES FAULT THEY CANT DO ANYTHING !!!"

Got disconnected twice in a span of 10 minutes. This is getting ridiculous.

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Originally Posted by PassinLay

But they're taking "countermeasures" ! Lmao

Cant wait for the SE defense force to come tell us "ITS NOT SES FAULT THEY CANT DO ANYTHING !!!"

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Not defending any party but DDOS is hardly SE's fault. I don't know what DDOS protection they have or lacking, but it's difficult to 100% protect yourself from DDOS attacks.

Mao curious. Mao never has as much troubles with such interruptions in any other game or even in FFXIV in past years. So Mao has to ask, what is differents now? Is FFXIV become more vulnerables? Is there just more bad actors out there makings mischiefs? Is those whats makings mischiefs gotten betters at doings it? Is some peoples just gotten so angrys at SE that thems willing to cuts off thems noses to spites themselves? Mao thinkings this whole mess mights be pretty complicateds and might has more to do with mischiefs makers than with SE.

SE is taking steps to prevent DDOS - they've been continously adjusting and the hordes of DDOS services simply attack from a new avenue. I would rather legal action somehow (yes you can laugh now) be taken against the parties launching the DDOS;

The reality is a DDOS is essentially abusing the methods of Ingress into a server - the very thing that a MMO requires and for whatever reason FFXIV is the #1 target to DDOS for the last few months - it was just as bad in WoW when it was happening (WoW however had more worlds and their cross-world system is less player controlled)

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Originally Posted by Eraden

Mao curious. Mao never has as much troubles with such interruptions in any other game or even in FFXIV in past years. So Mao has to ask, what is differents now? Is FFXIV become more vulnerables? Is there just more bad actors out there makings mischiefs? Is those whats makings mischiefs gotten betters at doings it? Is some peoples just gotten so angrys at SE that thems willing to cuts off thems noses to spites themselves? Mao thinkings this whole mess mights be pretty complicateds and might has more to do with mischiefs makers than with SE.

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If I were to hazard a guess - corporate espionage as FF XIV is pretty much carrying SE's finances at the moment.
My runner up is simply because FFXIV has such a high public profile - that its a obvious and attractive target - In my over a decade of playing WOW I think I saw like 1 or 2 company cross-promotions and those were generally by online computer perhipheral companies; by contrast you frequently see FFXIV in coffee shops; fast-food and my PERSONAL favorite the limited edition FFXIV Whiskey which one day I will get brave enough to open one of the 3 bottles - don't worry when I do I'll invite you over!

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Originally Posted by Eraden

Mao curious. Mao never has as much troubles with such interruptions in any other game or even in FFXIV in past years. So Mao has to ask, what is differents now? Is FFXIV become more vulnerables? Is there just more bad actors out there makings mischiefs? Is those whats makings mischiefs gotten betters at doings it? Is some peoples just gotten so angrys at SE that thems willing to cuts off thems noses to spites themselves? Mao thinkings this whole mess mights be pretty complicateds and might has more to do with mischiefs makers than with SE.

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It's most likely a bunch of annoyed skiddies. Most of the time, the issues seem to be related to particular nodes with NTT which seem to be pretty vulnerable, which is why a lot of people say using VPNs will get around it sometimes.

I am still pondering how the vast technically gifted employees at Enix , having created a hugely complex online game, cannot do the same with security. if they would themselves, admit they are not capable of preventing ddos, why not get those who Are skilled in the area of online security , and hire them. .. what about finding a way to reverse the sender's ddos spam right back at them?. .. It's getting more and more worrying that it feels as if Enix has Zero capability in their own safety, security.. I worry about our private details being stolen.

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Originally Posted by sootfoot

I am still pondering how the vast technically gifted employees at Enix , having created a hugely complex online game, cannot do the same with security. if they would themselves, admit they are not capable of preventing ddos, why not get those who Are skilled in the area of online security , and hire them. .. what about finding a way to reverse the sender's ddos spam right back at them?. .. It's getting more and more worrying that it feels as if Enix has Zero capability in their own safety, security.. I worry about our private details being stolen.

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I mean, that just comes down to the basics of how DDOS works. It basically involves hijacking a large # of compromised machines and sending a massive deluge of requests to a server all at once. You can't "reverse spam" it because practically none of it actually comes from the one initiating it. Even massive companies like Microsoft and Amazon have been DDOS'd, and they have far more resources than even a relatively large gaming company. Put simply, the amount of $$$ that would have to be spent to open up enough server capacity to deal with the DDOS for the very minimal windows of time it's actually occurring is just not feasible (and nothing stops the one doing the DDOS from simply increasing the amount of data they send until it overwhelms *that* security). With what we're seeing here, it's not even the SE servers themselves that are getting attacked, but a third party NTT node.

Also, DDOS attacks and stealing private data are two completely different things requiring two completely different levels of sophistication and approaches. One is performing a surgical strike on a target from hundreds of miles away, the other is just gathering a large group of people and bum-rushing your target.

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Originally Posted by Striker44

Put simply, the amount of $$$ that would have to be spent to open up enough server capacity to deal with the DDOS for the very minimal windows of time it's actually occurring is just not feasible

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This is categorically false. There a MANY third party companies that have stupid amounts of dead server space specifically to have DDOS attacks routed into for a fee. It is by far more practical for SE to use a service such as these instead of just try to weather the storm.

All true.. yet, It would be beneficial if any said company could use a temporary, 'kill switch' / disabler from a specific incoming route.. and perhaps utilize back-up servers / alternate pathway.. I don't know, I'm hardly computer savvy, but makes me feel better offering ideas.. or learning about what is feasible or not.. *Data, begin randomizing our shield's deflector codes* ^^ I cannot log-in as I get error code 505 . was booted while in mid-data travel. can't get to char selection screen for any data NA, OCN EU etc.

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Originally Posted by sootfoot

why not get those who Are skilled in the area of online security , and hire them

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What do you think they are doing when there is a DDoS and setting up countermeasures? They are using the people they hired to figure out the attack pattern and prevent it from persisting, which is why it usually only lasts a short period of time (ie. a few minutes). Those few minutes are still enough to disconnect you sometimes, obviously.

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what about finding a way to reverse the sender's ddos spam right back at them?

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That's the genius of a DDoS. It is not just one sender. It is lots. And it can be hard to distinguish the attackers from the people playing the game if the traffic is intentionally similar.

Even if there was just one attacker and they could do a revenge attack, those "attackers" are compromised people's computers! They may be attacking a pensioner's hacked computer.

Not to mention how fighting a crime with a mutual crime doesn't help anything. It would surely mean SE were breaking a law somewhere if they did that, and as a well-known company, they'd get into trouble.

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I worry about our private details being stolen.

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There is a world of difference between a DDoS and data security.

Usually a data breach happens either via a simple flaw in the code or setup (very basic, elementary error), via clicking links without being careful (but this is likely possible due to the company machine setup not being good) or via social engineering. There are companies and organizations that have never had such data breaches because they were more on top of coding and software in the early days of the internet boom. This exposed even major tech companies that were actually novices at this, while the ones that were on top of it remain silently unbreached.

Then there is of course social engineering, where they may just convince someone to give information under false pretences.

I'm taking a guess it is from players that is tired of them not listening to them. In forums you do see lots and lots of angry players. I just hope they stop soon they are getting very bad and annoying.

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Originally Posted by hynaku

I'm taking a guess it is from players that is tired of them not listening to them. In forums you do see lots and lots of angry players. I just hope they stop soon they are getting very bad and annoying.

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I could swear I remember seeing these attacks even in Heavensward. They have had them the whole time, just not as frequently or rather their countermeasures actually worked.

I remember thinking back then, especially when people started rushing to this game due to the BfA reception in Stormblood "is it WoW players attacking or something?" but after 10 years of this I think we should move beyond that little fantasy. It's probably not as simple as that.

If I were to guess, the nearby nodes are probably being attacked and FFXIV is being caught in the crossfire, either affecting the servers directly or just affecting certain FFXIV players passing through certain nodes.