The recent DDoS attack on FFXIV servers.

[Skivvy]

Adders always win on my server, that or Maelstrom....it's when the Flames win that you kind of tilt your head towards the side like "What?", lol.

That's been my experience too on our data center D: Flames seem to rarely win (that's my current GC), and this is why I always enter as a free agent

[Paladinleeds]

Nah, if they really cared they'd be taking action against their crappy data center for not protecting themselves better. I've played plenty of other MMOs that had to deal with DDoS attacks, and guess what, none of them lasted for WEEKS. Things were usually fixed up and stable within a couple days at most.

Can some mitigating measures be taken? Sure. However, given how easy it is to proxy yourself, or even copy the IP address of other people accessing the game (as in legit players), including spoofing their MAC address (think hardware ID), plus how a lot of ISPs use dynamic IP assignment, you cannot failsafe it. Bear in mind there has been DDoS attacks that have taken down some of the biggest and strongest networks, and you'll see that if someone is determined enough, no amount of protection is going to stop it. And as people said, these services are available for hire, so someone disgruntled by the game can order a DDoS attack on the servers, and they could pay for say like 50 years of daily attacks if they wanted to. DDoS attacks are very sophisticated as they use botnets to attack a server (basically, think thousands of PCs all attacking a server at the same time, with different IPs etc).

Plus, if they're really determined, they can inject malicious code into SE's servers that when a player accesses it (say for example the login server), they get infected with that malicious code and their PC becomes a part of the botnet. PS4s are also susceptible to this if the malicious code is designed to exploit security flaws in the PS4. Trust me, it's a game of cat and mouse. Just gotta ride the storm and hope the person doesn't have an unending personal vendetta against Square Enix.

[Aerlana]

*snip*

So in your mind, DDOS on other games were done by not determined guys, or people bad at it. And only SE get a determined/good peep to do it?
poooooor SE...

>_>

[Paladinleeds]

So in your mind, DDOS on other games were done by not determined guys, or people bad at it. And only SE get a determined/good peep to do it?
poooooor SE...

>_>

Depends on the technical competence of those orchestrating the DDoS attacks on those games (or how much money they're willing to throw at a DDoS network for hire), as well as how vindictive they are. If they're using run of the mill paid for DDoS attacks, then the malicious code etc in the servers won't be used. But if they create their own botnet to do it with, then yes, the malicious code in SE's lobby server etc is possible, in order to expand the botnet and set off virus checkers of those they can't take into the botnet, etc, to make people think FFXIV is a virus and will stop people supporting the game. I've done software development as a job in the past, and am a mostly technical person, so I know just how far it can go. As for how far it actually goes, depends on the person doing it. While what I am saying is indeed at the extreme end, it's showing just how far it can go.

[Aerlana]

yes i understood what you said.

But when other game get far less DDOS matter than SE there is 2 solution

1) SE is on this point (like so much others...) in the way "spend less money, always less" and so... this
2) They are focused by a better/more determined guy or group of people.

... personnally i consider the matter is more SE side than the attackers. you consider the other way. The thing is no proof, on one side or the other. but the "SE victim" way is the one i can consider the less...

Really strange that the matter is far more there on this game than any other...

[Paladinleeds]

But when other game get far less DDOS matter than SE there is 2 solution

1) SE is on this point (like so much others...) in the way "spend less money, always less" and so... this
2) They are focused by a better/more determined guy or group of people.

Truthfully, I actually think it's a bit of both. As I mentioned previously, there are mitigating strategies that can be applied (but aren't completely failsafe), and I do believe that SE could be doing more to handle this since I hear their "Technical limitations" excuse so much, I'm more surprised when they actually say they CAN do something. But Square Enix is a huge brand, and FFXIV is a very popular game, as well as being run by Japanese developers not western developers (unlike Blizzard, the main rival, which is a western development studio), so there's popularity as well as racist intentions potentially going on here further conflating the issue and making the attack at higher risk (as well as increased risk of higher potency).

[Vrankyl]

yes i understood what you said.

But when other game get far less DDOS matter than SE there is 2 solution

1) SE is on this point (like so much others...) in the way "spend less money, always less" and so... this
2) They are focused by a better/more determined guy or group of people.

... personnally i consider the matter is more SE side than the attackers. you consider the other way. The thing is no proof, on one side or the other. but the "SE victim" way is the one i can consider the less...

Really strange that the matter is far more there on this game than any other...

See I don't know why everyone is thinking this has only happened to SE this bad. I remember the one holiday season where World of Warcraft was practically unplayable for weeks because of DDoS attacks, and World of Warcraft had far more resources to use to throw at it. Didn't stop the servers from constantly crashing until the culprits were caught.

[Androir]

Interesting. Since This doings here at the EU are illegal and they can get jailed.

[Aerlana]

See I don't know why everyone is thinking this has only happened to SE this bad. I remember the one holiday season where World of Warcraft was practically unplayable for weeks because of DDoS attacks, and World of Warcraft had far more resources to use to throw at it. Didn't stop the servers from constantly crashing until the culprits were caught.

could you link me some thing speaking of ddos doing game mass DC like we have here, during more than 1 week elsewhere else in lets say... 5 past years?
Lets not forget that, because you point wow... that SE get 2 more years experience at handling MMORPG (and i spoke about games not only wow or MMORPGs :-° LoL, CS etc )


Really, when i see wow, lol, CS, steam servers, twitter, or any big things that could be a target of choice to any DDOS attack... i have hard time finding anything that long... ... Some time yes, 1, 2, even 3 or 4 days. and i didnt cry the first week here. prefered patience...
but now... ... After ddos attack one year ago. And so much more thing to say about what they do to around servers (lets speak of how many month with the 4.1 latency matter? and when even some did continue have "call your ISP, not our matter anymore" . Hard to consider SE is now working on this matter seriously...

[Vrankyl]

could you link me some thing speaking of ddos doing game mass DC like we have here, during more than 1 week elsewhere else in lets say... 5 past years?
Lets not forget that, because you point wow... that SE get 2 more years experience at handling MMORPG (and i spoke about games not only wow or MMORPGs :-° LoL, CS etc )


Really, when i see wow, lol, CS, steam servers, twitter, or any big things that could be a target of choice to any DDOS attack... i have hard time finding anything that long... ... Some time yes, 1, 2, even 3 or 4 days. and i didnt cry the first week here. prefered patience...
but now... ... After ddos attack one year ago. And so much more thing to say about what they do to around servers (lets speak of how many month with the 4.1 latency matter? and when even some did continue have "call your ISP, not our matter anymore" . Hard to consider SE is now working on this matter seriously...

There is nothing you can do to prevent a DDoS attack. There are measures to take to prevent it from being catastrophic, which they have stated they are doing, but you cannot prevent nor stop a DDoS attack. Especially since these attacks aren't always directed at SE servers but the ISPs routing into those servers which SE can do nothing at all about.

In regards to WoW in 2010 a man consistently launched DDoS attacks against WoW servers from February until March. There were also the Lizard Squad attacks that have hit Blizzard multiple times for weeks on end. Hell just in 2016 from August to September Battle.net itself was constantly being struck with DDoS taking multiple games down at a time. This also does not include the DDoS issues that World of Warcraft by itself suffered from November to December of 2014. It really just takes a simple google search. Though it's not common for these issues to be so prolonged, because the people behind them usually get bored or get caught for long term ones, they do happen. The SB launch was a huge mess for a number of reasons, not just DDoS, and that can be held against SE. This no so much.