I have a Question about DDOS attacks

[LuciferMink]

I've been in this game for years. I haven't seen the level of disconnects and DDoS attacks in the past as I have recently, SINCE THE DATA CENTER MOVE. I don't know what they did, but it seems the new data center is less secure than the old one. Yes, the old one had a slower ping, but that didn't bother me, I didn't notice any speed increase with the move. I'm just wondering where all our money goes, since it's sort of becoming obvious to me that they aren't keeping up with hardware and security upgrades. My friend's husband does this kind of stuff for a living, while it's difficult, this game shouldn't be subjected to these types of attacks.

Ya say google or amazon type infrastructure.... well, SquareEnix, I'm pretty sure, has a good one in Japan. We've already seen how they favor the Japanese, Korean, and Chinese players over the US players. An earthquake hits and a small part of Japan is in trouble? Oh, housing demo is paused. Wild fires are ALL OVER the North American continent? Naw, we ain't pausin that. Angel and demon outfits were on the Chinese mog station LONG before we saw it.

North American FanFest. We KNOW how quickly those tickets went. Yes, some were bought by scalpers and those who cut the line by getting the final checkout URL. But some were bought and earmarked for Japanese tourists who are partaking in a tour of the US put on by SquareEnix. You heard me. Some of the US FanFest tickets were already earmarked for Japanese tourists who are coming to the US. I don't have an issue with them coming to see the US. I really don't. But I do have a problem with the venue being so small, with such a limited number of tickets, with the North American fanbase being SO BIG, they should NOT be reserving any tickets for anyone.

Yes, it is their ISP that gets bombed, so... maybe THEY need to find a new ISP? We already know our sub money is actually put towards other game products, NOT this game's maintenance.

--Lucifer Mink

[Ilan]

I've been in this game for years. I haven't seen the level of disconnects and DDoS attacks in the past as I have recently, SINCE THE DATA CENTER MOVE. I don't know what they did, but it seems the new data center is less secure than the old one. Yes, the old one had a slower ping, but that didn't bother me, I didn't notice any speed increase with the move. I'm just wondering where all our money goes, since it's sort of becoming obvious to me that they aren't keeping up with hardware and security upgrades. My friend's husband does this kind of stuff for a living, while it's difficult, this game shouldn't be subjected to these types of attacks.

Ya say google or amazon type infrastructure.... well, SquareEnix, I'm pretty sure, has a good one in Japan. We've already seen how they favor the Japanese, Korean, and Chinese players over the US players. An earthquake hits and a small part of Japan is in trouble? Oh, housing demo is paused. Wild fires are ALL OVER the North American continent? Naw, we ain't pausin that. Angel and demon outfits were on the Chinese mog station LONG before we saw it.

North American FanFest. We KNOW how quickly those tickets went. Yes, some were bought by scalpers and those who cut the line by getting the final checkout URL. But some were bought and earmarked for Japanese tourists who are partaking in a tour of the US put on by SquareEnix. You heard me. Some of the US FanFest tickets were already earmarked for Japanese tourists who are coming to the US. I don't have an issue with them coming to see the US. I really don't. But I do have a problem with the venue being so small, with such a limited number of tickets, with the North American fanbase being SO BIG, they should NOT be reserving any tickets for anyone.

Yes, it is their ISP that gets bombed, so... maybe THEY need to find a new ISP? We already know our sub money is actually put towards other game products, NOT this game's maintenance.

--Lucifer Mink

So what can SE do if the ISP gets ddos attacks? Nothing because SE doesn't get attacked!

The angel and demon set were most likely custom made for the chinese, ya know ordered n stuff. So no wonder they had it first. We only get the stuff that the chinese ordered because the com here cried about it, so be happy that you can get it at all.

I don't know how your contracts with your ISP are but my contracts run for 1-2 years and i suppose business contracts run even longer and it can get pretty expensive if you just terminate them.

[LuciferMink]

Yeah, and they're getting the WHALE mount first. They got the Red Hare mount first as well. The market for Mog Station ALWAYS goes: Asian market > NA market > EU market. The Cloud mount didn't hit EU till a FULL YEAR after we got it. So yes, SquareEnix FAVORS the Asian Market.

But, my main point is: I know their ISP is getting attacked. If their ISP can't keep their own stuff secure, then SE should CHANGE THEIR ISP. When the company that my old store's point of sale system went through changed a policy, making it more difficult to process a credit card charge, we didn't just sit on it and tell our VERY ANGRY customers "It's not our fault". WE CHANGED OUR PROVIDER! Yeah, it was a learning curve, but we did it, and we were GLAD we did.

There are things they can do.

--Lucifer

[Hestzhyen]

Yeah, and they're getting the WHALE mount first. They got the Red Hare mount first as well. The market for Mog Station ALWAYS goes: Asian market > NA market > EU market. The Cloud mount didn't hit EU till a FULL YEAR after we got it. So yes, SquareEnix FAVORS the Asian Market.

But, my main point is: I know their ISP is getting attacked. If their ISP can't keep their own stuff secure, then SE should CHANGE THEIR ISP. When the company that my old store's point of sale system went through changed a policy, making it more difficult to process a credit card charge, we didn't just sit on it and tell our VERY ANGRY customers "It's not our fault". WE CHANGED OUR PROVIDER! Yeah, it was a learning curve, but we did it, and we were GLAD we did.

There are things they can do.

--Lucifer

The thing about DDoS attacks is that they're frighteningly effective for little investment and there's no sure-fire way to defend against them. You can slough off bogus traffic as you identify it but it's so cheap and easy to shift the source and pattern of the attacks that there is almost no point except to say "well we tried". Eventually whoever is doing this will either get bored, run out of money/infected devices, or get caught... with the first being the most likely.

SE is not a perfect company and their customer service leaves a LOT to be desired. But they legitimately can't just switch ISPs or put up a firewall to stop this- they have to play defense until the aggressor stops on their own.

As to the cash shop, who cares, it's all a waste of money anyway. If SE wants to play favourites with China/Korea then let 'em.

[Turnipsi]

So what can SE do if the ISP gets ddos attacks? Nothing because SE doesn't get attacked!

The angel and demon set were most likely custom made for the chinese, ya know ordered n stuff. So no wonder they had it first. We only get the stuff that the chinese ordered because the com here cried about it, so be happy that you can get it at all.

I don't know how your contracts with your ISP are but my contracts run for 1-2 years and i suppose business contracts run even longer and it can get pretty expensive if you just terminate them.

Chinese version is being handled by Shanda, don't remember which company was behind Korean. We're getting their exclusives due to player request, they're being ordered and developed for those versions. What does this have to do with DDOS anyway...? Japan is getting hit too.

Your friends husband would be pretty rich is he can stop attacks like that btw. And if they're actually wanting FFXIV down, changing ISP (which is behind a contract) wouldn't even help. This has been discussed previously. You're welcome to do your decisions on staying or leaving.

[Fonzarelli]

For people who are talking about how SE needs to do something about DDoS attacks, what do you propose be done?
I know you think that your $14.99 USD/month is a lot of money, but it's not. Companies like Amazon or Google have thousands of square footage of independent machines running their servers. These publicly-traded companies deal with money on a scale that SE is nowhere in the league of. So it is actually very unreasonable for you to expect that somehow the company can be protected at all times from this level of attack. Of course, as time passes, SE can try to find and isolate some things... but that takes time.

Also, there isn't a reasonable expectation that specifically the FF14 servers would be targeted by this form of attack. This kind of attack is often reserved for trying to disrupt government websites, and other big-fish in the world. Not some random MMO that has no affect on the world's economy, policy, or even a mass-level of users (yes, approximate 14 million is a lot of people, but not for this kind of statement).

Really, you should be more upset at the people doing it. It is really stupid how some people get their kicks. They are literally targeting servers of a game, where the sole purpose people connect to, is to have fun.
So these people, whatever their motive is, are actually the biggest d-bags because their sole purpose is just to stop the fun of a select group of people in the world.

[Kurando]

Seems to be moving the topic to a "SE hates NA" tantrum. NA isn't the only place in the world, nor does it deserve any special treatment over anyone else. You lost your potd data, it sucks, but life goes on. Perhaps we'll get something from SE in the future for the issues who knows, but going on a hate speech against the whole company isn't going to do anything.

[SenorPatty]

Seems to be moving the topic to a "SE hates NA" tantrum. NA isn't the only place in the world, nor does it deserve any special treatment over anyone else. You lost your potd data, it sucks, but life goes on. Perhaps we'll get something from SE in the future for the issues who knows, but going on a hate speech against the whole company isn't going to do anything.

No! I want my lynch mob now! My crops died on the day of an eclipse, which we all know is a sign created by the strange things I don't understand and since it's perfectly normal to hate things I don't understand, I need to scapegoat. Only then will all my problems magically go away.

[Nezerius]

Sure looks like a thinly veiled attempt at yet another "DDoS - PotD edition" thread, was the first one not enough for your group, OP?

OT: It's neither the player's, nor SE's fault. The DDoS attacks aren't aimed specifically at SE's servers, but to routes leading to those servers.

[Ilan]

Chinese version is being handled by Shanda, don't remember which company was behind Korean. We're getting their exclusives due to player request, they're being ordered and developed for those versions. What does this have to do with DDOS anyway...? Japan is getting hit too.

Your friends husband would be pretty rich is he can stop attacks like that btw. And if they're actually wanting FFXIV down, changing ISP (which is behind a contract) wouldn't even help. This has been discussed previously. You're welcome to do your decisions on staying or leaving.

Wrong quote, but you are right.