SOE Games, Forums Offline Due to Distributed Denial of Service Attack
UPDATE: The DDoS attack has ceased, and all SOE websites and game services are now coming back online. Players have reported logging into EQ2 successfully.
As of 6:00pm EST, all SOE websites and forums seem to be offline and are now returning a Maintenance message. In addition, all SOE game servers, including PlanetSide 2, DCUO, EQ and EQ2 are offline and inaccessible.
A DDoS hacker group have taken responsibility on twitter. In past days, they took down:
- EVE Online
- World of Warcraft
- Battle.net
- Guild Wars 2
- Skype
NOTE: This was NOT a hack, and customer data has NOT been breached.
Read more about Denial of Service Attacks at Wikipedia.
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Comments (76)
Faelen
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*sigh*
Why can’t people just not be stupid…
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derprevealer
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Find a guy called Bobotish in PS2. He’s a member of this bunch of morons.
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Karrane
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Asses
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Ergos
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How sick in the head do you have to be to think it’s “funny” that you’ve annoyed a ton of people? ‘Cause these guys think it’s hilarious.
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milliebii
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Well I suppose it is the same mindset that enjoys ganking and demands non-consensual PvP.
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Finora
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Seriously. I don’t think it would be possible for me to be bored enough to resort to such asshatterery.
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Sabre
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Wish these people would grow up
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Golur
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What a bunch of wankers. Ruining people’s holidays and days off work – is that ‘fun’?
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Karrane
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I didn’t mention it.. but TY guys for being on top of this and posting.
I was going crazy trying to figure out what was going on.
I love this site!!!
Karr
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Mae
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Thanks for posting this!
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Foodcity
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😐 Really? Great…… Let’s hope it’s not as bad an aftermath as when they were hacked and lost credit card info…….
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Foodcity
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Just as I was going to be leveling up all my alts crafting this weekend, too.
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Linda
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Bored little boys.
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Annakari
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Thank you for posting this… I thought it was my internet because a snow storm was starting.
I don’t get why they have to target the games on a holiday… they can’t find something more notable to target?
So, the tick off a bunch of us that everyone thinks is crazy for playing a bunch of games… wow…. that certainly should send a strong and “real” message to the world… go weirdos.
So, much for a couple hours of relaxing… nothing on tv either. 🙁
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Bashem
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Dont feed the trolls by giving them reason to exist by commenting on their posts. And does anyone know why the servers were taken down? What there statement supposed to mean?
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Carnifex
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Well, least I know now what happened, thought my PC was croaking or something.
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Ani
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it’s not funny, and it’s damn sure not cool to ruin people’s days off…some people don’t have a lot of time to game…when we can, sh*t like this happens…
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Madcat
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it’s annoying but for me the blame come to sony, they want to link everything at short cost. One side is down everything fall.
And if they havnt started a war against customer this would never happen.
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Orophin
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Madcat, really, no its not hackers fault, it must be sony. Just like when it rains it must be the weathermans fault.
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Leeroy
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Very tired of seeing this formulaic “IF *evil company* didn’t do things I don’t like, then they wouldn’t get hacked” claptrap. Crooks can justify anything they do with such a statement. Derptrolling does, and they are breaking several laws. Look at all the DDOS attacks they have made against other games’ servers in the past 2 days. They are costing millions of dollars in damage (time, lost customers, hardware and software changes) each time they pull out their e- peens for their sick contests.
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Feldon
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Possibly the dumbest comment ever posted on EQ2Wire.
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Zrais
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25,000 dumb comments? that’s a lot LoL
😉
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Zapphod
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The problem with that logic is that it really didn’t cost SOE a whole lot as they will still get their monthly fee and SC purchases, the only people who lost out are those trying to play the games.
Sadly this was just the actions of a sad few who are desperate to noticed.
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griffonlady
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Law_Abiding_Citizen
instructional video on what to do if you get ahold of some of the ass hats that do stuff like this. (the part after he gets ahold of the second criminal, any way.
Pain olympics also comes to mind when people are a-holes for the fun of it. Cept we get to do that TO them -.-
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Scott
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They’ll be doing prison time within a year. And sued into oblivion. They won’t be laughing then.
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Knightrider
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i doubt it
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Anaogi
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You’d have to find them first. Though if I had my druthers I’d be re-enacting the end of “Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back”…
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Hoot
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It’s highly unlikely. There’s a large gap between hacking and DDOSing when it comes to a criminal offense. Anyone can use a client that focus’s on DDOS against a server, it’s the most accessed programs a script kiddy can get their hands on. The amount of money that SoE and these companies would have to pour into for a lawsuit wouldn’t be worth it, especially since none of the individuals would be likely able to repay the damages that SoE would be seeking.
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Murfalad
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I don’t think SOE would care one bit about how much money that they could recover, and their lawyers are on the payroll all the time.
Although it would mean the authorities identifying these muppets first. If their intentity did become known though I would not like to be in their boots, as on top of some serious time they’d have little chance of hanging onto any posessions with several teams of corporate lawyers filing case after case against them, ouch.
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Archangel
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Never say never.
Anonymous ‘PayPal 14’ hackers enter guilty plea in case surrounding pro-WikiLeaks DDoS attack
December 05, 2013
http://rt.com/usa/paypal-hackers-court-anonymous-787/
“The defendants — who admitted to participating in an Anonymous-led operation that momentarily took PayPal.com offline in late 2010 — entered guilty pleas before a judge in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California early Thursday and will be formally sentenced in one year.”
Remember the 2010 Sony DDoS/data breach?
19-year-old arrested over Sony hack, London police say
June 21, 2011
http://www.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/europe/06/21/uk.sony.hack.arrest/
Spain Detains 3 in PlayStation Cyberattacks
June 10, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/11/technology/11hack.html
FBI Arrests U.S. Suspect in LulzSec Sony Hack; Anonymous Also Targeted
09.22.11
http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2011/09/sony-hack-arrest/
Just don’t expect news anytime soon.
/*
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-8lDYrvTILc
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Tabri
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I hope Sony dont bring everything down for a month like last time. What an ass some people really need to get some kind of life.
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Tabri
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Oh and yes ty Feldon for being so fast to post this so we have a clue as to what is going on. We were in the middle of forming group for Dominion to get rid of yesterdays daily for the zone. Its sad that a lot of people are off work right now and cant even play their favorite game be it Minecraft, EQII, Planetside, or Guild Wars 2 etc
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Chronusxx
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They also took down every League of Legends login server, Club Penguin and some others in the attack on the 30th. Took down every game Phantoml0rd was streaming on twitch.
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billymahoney
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why dont these punks DDoS something that matters….oh. right. they are script kiddies that dont actually know how to do anything big.
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7rlsy
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I dug down through that twitter feed. It starts in October ’11, declaring they were “back”. Sssooo… this has been going on for over two years, escalating, with tweets since that October. That there was inadequate prevention is nearly troll feed in and of itself. :p
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griffonlady
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Aye Ty Feldon. Some of us would be spending the evening trying to re-install EQ2 if you weren’t here to let us know what’s going on. lol
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daalilama
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What was the perceived wrong this time that “forced” these a-holes to pull this? Another one of their “players” get caught trying to crack the new playstation online codes for free games and get a legal letter sent to them again?
As someone who credit card info was stolen by members on Anonymous quite a few years ago (not from the soe hack but quite a few years earlier than that) I really have no love for a-holes like this..blame sony if you want but the real blame lies with those that did the dead not those who are the victims.
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Feldon
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This was entirely out of boredom and merriment. They were soliciting on Twitter which sites they should attack next.
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7rlsy
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P.S., yes, absolutely, thank you, Feldon, for being on top of this. No one else is (as usual).
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cyberpatrol
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The cybercrimes division is looking into the matter.
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Elderon
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Looks like a whiny little brat didn’t get what he wanted for Christmas so instead of being mad at mom & pop, they’re going to take it out on all of us. I can only imagine the misguided pleasure these punks get at thinking they’ve accomplished something noble.
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noluk
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I only have 2 thumbs Feldon and both are up for your, once again, spot on information. Thanks a bunch for all you guys do.
As for hackers, Karmas a Bitch!
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Loves
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Awesome, thanks for keeping us in the “know” Feldon!
I’ll never get to 2k FF tokens at this rate!
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Knightrider
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great….now i wonder how many days/weeks the game will be offline now due to this….why cant these idiots go hack into govt websites instead? oh well, i guess it will affect all those unemployed, welfare, people on “disability” that i have to work and bust my tail to pay for their game sub and station cash more than it would us workin folks…least we have somewhere we gotta be instead of sittin behind this 24/7…
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Feldon
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I predict servers will be down for hours, not days, and certainly not weeks. The group will get bored and move on to other sites.
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Knightrider
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well yea, hopefully govt sites, which should be hacked in the first place
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Knightrider
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dunno feldon, today being a holiday, i doubt anyone’s in the soe office let alone are even aware of whats going on…..i feel more like game will be down at the minimum of 24 hrs
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aenau
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Servers coming back up now
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Caela
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My husband plays Guild Wars 2 – he said they were only down about a half hour. He was really surprised it (SOE attack) had been going on for over an hour already.
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aspekx
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nice one Knightrider, you sound as informed and compassionate as our scriptkiddy friends. keep up the good work.
oh, and Feldon, thank you.
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mjollnir peterson
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Greetings,
Well these Freakin idiots are posting their activities on twitter so lets hope someone does something about it.
I to am dismayed cause it is a long weekend and wanted to play.I am grateful that eq2wire let us know what was going on! Great Site!
Just goes to show Mr Derp has an IP and a phone # just like we all do so he will have to pay the piper at some point. Then I wonder how funny he will think that is?
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TarnaX
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Thanks for the info Feldon! A shame tho- I was just trying to get on to shop the rebate sale which was set to end tonight. If this downtime goes beyond that I hope they give us a bit more sale time when things are sorted out.
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Luninaire
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I’m back in the game so it looks like they fixed the problem.
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Alenna@Guk
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let me add my thanks to you Feldon for posting this information.
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Deornwulf
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Considering that the entire SOE network is down, I doubt that SOE is not aware of what is going on. The answer to how long depends on how good the programmers at SOE are. Every minute SOE is down, SOE is losing revenue,
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Feldon
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It’s a Network Ops issue, and coordinating with SOE’s colocation company.
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Jimie
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their twitter said it’s over. My game is working again.
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Lirand
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Dunno about EQ2, but EQ1 just came back up. g’luck all.
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Tabri
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EQII is back up
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Grigorak
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Might have something to do with the accounts that were banned i read about on flames
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RoughRider
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They might not find it as funny if some player with a bit of funding decides to take it personally. Hire a better hacker to locate them & see what a…contract or two might cost. Leave the Legal Beagles out of it & just make sure the problems never happen again.
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Feldon
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There is no perfect solution to prevent DDoS. These attacks take advantage of fundamental aspects of the TCP/IP protocol.
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RoughRider
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I agree but if those pulling them off started having to pay for doing it, whether through money or pain, fewer of them would be doing just to be rectums like those…individuals.
😎
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Jrral
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The problem’s the “distributed” part of DDoS. The people directing the attack aren’t the ones whose machines will actually carry out the attack. The typical “attacker” machine is someone’s home machine that’s gotten infected by a bit of malware and is now part of a botnet that the attackers basically rent time/bandwidth on. So when your company is hit by a DDoS, the only leads you have are on average Joes who have no clue what’s going on and no connection with the people behind the attack. And connecting the dots will typically lead you only to the botnet operators, who live in other countries and can’t feasibly be sued or prosecuted. When it comes to the actual people like DerpTrolling, it comes down to “Knowing they did it’s one thing, proving it in court’s something else again.”.
And the only feasible solution’s unpopular: requiring ISPs to shut off the Internet connections of subscribers whose machines are infected and participating in a botnet or an attack, and keeping it shut off until the subscriber cleans up their machines and demonstrates they’ve taken steps to keep it from happening again. The biggest problem is that the worst problems are also the people who have the least clue and are most likely to believe that they couldn’t possibly be infected because they don’t see any problem with their machine.
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RoughRider
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For those like DerpTrolling I’m not talking about court, I have a completely different type of contract in mind. Those who prey on the innocent hide behind & avoid the legal system, they should be treated in a similar manner.
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Broomy
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Game is back up; however, the rebate mechanism on Marketplace isn’t working.
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Eward McAlpine
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I was a student at UC Berkeley in 1962, we never dreamed of this kind of behavior as we were inventing the Intra University Net. Sad to say, but this guy is definitely a lower life form.
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FireSmed2014
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I find it laughable that Sony websites are tied in with their games. This is very unprofessional because of the frequency of their issues. In times like this they need to communicate with their CUSTOMERS. Using other websites like Facebook or Twitter to tell your customers that their service is not available (or why it’s not available) is BS. They need to host their main websites elsewhere.
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Hoot
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To be honest, this type of unprofessional infrastructure is ironically common in the industry. On Dec 25, Valve had a two day offer to get L4D2 for free. The servers crashed instantly, everything tied to Steam just stopped working for the entire day. The fact that everything regarding Steam including the games are all located on the same server is absurd.
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Feldon
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Here’s the Twitter history of how this all went down:
https://eq2wire.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/derptrolling.png
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Katz
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Self-centered brats. Why don’t they spend their time doing something worthwhile and useful. I feel for all the people who had to cut short their holiday to deal with this. I
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Murfalad
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Well hopefully they’ll trace the people down and then they can spend the next few years discovering what commiting a “federal offence” in the US, or the “maximum sentence of 10 years” means in the UK.
In the meantime we have to live with these morons, while other people are trying to limit the surveillance state these muppets are encouraging it with their actions.
At least with every attack it encourages operators to upgrade hardware and try to find ways to combat it.
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Benj
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Thank you Feldon for posting this. I really thought my own network was crashing because I was kicked to character select every half hour. I was already in the game when this started.
As far as I can tell, all services are back up. Sony posted (on Facebook) that they found hardware issues with the EU servers and “an issue affecting all SOE services”. The most recent post says that the issue(s) have been fixed.
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Mermut
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Since they hit Skype (a Microsoft product), there actually IS a chance that there will be resources spent locating and spanking these juvenile individuals.
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daalilama
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I wholeheartedly support massive pistol whippings for these more often than not 20 something virgins living in their parents basement.
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Mentin
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So why did they do it? I fail to see the ‘fun’ in DDOS-attacking any Internet-service, including games. People thinking that is ‘fun’ shows a high degree of immaturity. If you have put a lot of effort into establishing a bot network, exposing it to public rage like that is directly stupid.
Could there be blackmail demands following?
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