Recently, Blizzard Entertainment was attacked over a weekend and its popular games such as Overwatch, Diablo, World of Warcraft, StarCraft, and Warcraft went offline. Over the last three years, downtime and latency have affected Blizzard’s player base which has fallen by 29% and its monthly active users have declined from US $38 million to US $27 million. The opposite is also true, and gamers will continue to remain loyal if they are assured of a great gaming experience. For example, Top games of 2021 include PUBG and Fortnite, but these games have been around for over 5 years. Call of Duty which is also on the list has been around for nearly 2 decades.
But now more than ever before, DDoS attackers are targeting the gaming industry and continuously causing latency and downtime to popular games.
Here is the list of recent attacks (published information) of high profile DDoS Attacks on the gaming industry in the year 2021:
| Square Enix | Players in Europe disconnected or faced difficulty logging into MMO RPG Final Fantasy XIV. |
| Paradox Interactive | Hearts of Iron IV fans disturbed as sessions crashed preventing access to the WW2 game online. |
| Respawn Entertainment | The Apex Legend game's server went offline. |
| Blizzard Entertainment | High latency and disconnections at the launch of the popular `Burning Crusade Classic' game. |
| Sony Computer Entertainment | The game LittleBigPlanet went down for over a month with no fix in sight. |
| Respawn Entertainment | Popular games Titanfall 1 and 2 Titanfall 2 experienced downtime preventing player access. |
| Oakland Athletics | Oakland Athletics' fans were met with error messages on the first day of ticket sales. |
| Sony Computer Entertainment | Fans of the popular video game LittleBigPlanet have been unable to access online features. |
| Riot Games League | Reported outages and problems, with login issues. Riot cancelled matches and had to refund money. |
| Blizzard Entertainment | The attack caused high latency and disconnections, especially for players of World of Warcraft. |
Most if not all gaming companies rely on the best of breed mitigation solutions but despite this they continue to face DDoS attacks that penetrate top mitigation solutions making DDoS attacks real-life battles with the attackers winning most of the times.
Here are the top 6 reasons why top DDoS mitigation solutions fail to protect DDoS Attack:
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Ongoing platform innovations and changes to the network from new game versions resulting in vulnerability gaps.
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Custom network protocols built to maximize speed that confuse IT personnel who may not be able to distinguish between genuine traffic and a DDoS attack.
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Sudden and complex multi-vector attacks that catch IT by surprise and cause downtime before they can be identified and mitigated.
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Small attacks with unlimited usage that sell cheap on the dark net.
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Narrow targeting and single points of failure that are relatively easy to launch on gaming platforms.
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Limited information on attacks before they happen as mitigation solutions do not have this information. DDoS mitigation solutions react to an attack, after the attack comes in and then they mitigate attacks, i.e., organizations get hit, go down, but later recover.
How to prevent further DDoS Attack even with an existing DDoS Mitigation Solution?
Automatic DDoS Simulations, working with any mitigation solution installed, RADAR™ offers superior DDoS coverage and automated DDoS protection. RADAR™ simulates over 100 attack vectors with all public facing IPs 24/7, giving real time visibility to all DDoS vulnerabilities with zero downtime.
About MazeBolt
Israel-based MazeBolt is an innovation leader in cybersecurity, with over two decades of experience in pioneering DDoS protection solutions. The company’s new flagship product, RADAR™, is a patented, new technology. It offers DDoS protection through automated DDoS simulations on live production, with zero downtime. Working in conjunction with any mitigation solution installed. Its unique capabilities have ensured business continuity and full DDoS security posture for enterprises worldwide including Fortune 1000 & NASDAQ-listed companies.
