Blizzard Deals With DDOS Attacks on Launch of New World of Warcraft Release

What can stop your level 98 orc from reaching 99? A DDOS attack of course. Blizzard Entertainment announced that hackers launched a DDOS, or Distributed Denial of Service attack, on the popular World of Warcraft servers Thursday night, disrupting service to players throughout North America. The attack struck during the release of the Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game’s fifth expansion set, Warlords of Draenor. WoW has been regarded as one of the most successful PC games in the United States and around the world. Several other online gaming servers have been targeted by DDOS attacks over the past several months, including League of Legends, which had been crippled as their producer, Riot Games, struggled to improve the server’s capacity to deal with the attacks. Those DDOS attacks caused frequent server downtime and huge spikes in latency (lag) or the computer’s connection speed with the server, lasting for several months. These particular attacks against World of Warcraft stemmed from a group calling themselves Lizard Squad; they claim that video game companies care more about profit margins than user experience, and these companies need to start caring more about those who pay money for the games. The servers have been more stable today, and Blizzard Entertainment has implemented temporary measures to halt the attacks. Sadly servers will constantly be plagued by DDOS attacks in a cat-and-mouse game, as software companies strive to stay ahead of increasingly sophisticated hackers.