Distributed Denial of Service (DDos) Attacks Bring Down Major Online Gaming Networks

Update: As of roughly 11:30p.m. (EST), the group claiming responsibility for the attacks has issued an “official” statement, declaring their assault on Xbox Live and PSN finished and annoucning their new intention to target online anonymity network Tor.

There’s nothing quite like receiving a brand new console on Christmas morning, no matter what age you may be.  That fresh burst of factory air, the clean smell of virgin plastic and cardboard, the pristine condition of what wonders lay inside….indeed hundreds, if not thousands of individuals were frantically rushing to plug in their brand new PlayStation 4 or Xbox One during these last couple of days.  Unfortunately, this experience has ranged from lackluster to full-blown headache for almost everyone involved.

Beginning sometime on Christmas morning, or even possibly the night before, both Sony and Microsoft’s online gaming services (PlayStation Network (PSN) and Xbox Live, respectively) were the target of what is known as a distributed denial of service attack, or DDoS.  A DDoS is one of the most basic tools at a “hacker’s” disposal.  Fundamentally, a person or group of persons establishes numerous connections to a network in order to allow no further incoming connections.  Think of it like a gridlocked highway – sure, it happens from time to time naturally, but a DDoS is an artificial creation of traffic.  It can be as simple as a coordinated effort between thousands of users, or it can be meticulously planned and timed by hijacking non-participants’ machines and causing them to establish unnecessary connections.

Think of Victim Website as either the PSN or Xbox Live network.

Complaints have ebbed and flowed over the past 40-something hours, with Microsoft reporting that many of their issues have been resolved as of late Friday night.  However, some features remain spotty, namely purchasing content and live TV.  Sony’s PSN is still on the fritz, with little public information from the company aside from generic statements ensuring gamers that engineers are hard at work restoring service.

Since PSN and Xbox Live are not exclusive to the new consoles, this outage is affecting users of the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PlayStation Vita as well.  Reports suggest that while these attacks have been a major nuisance, there is no danger to the personal information of subscribers.  A certain group on Twitter is taking responsibility for the DDoS attack, and it appears that their main goal is simply to get attention, which is why we’re not going to mention who it is here at Nerd Bacon.  So far, the story has even made its way across CNN’s desk.

The guys and girls behind all the technology have presumably combated worse, and there’s no reason to think they won’t pull through this as well.  If anything, these attacks will continue to strengthen these services as technicians and programmers fill security gaps.  What I find personally strange is that the attackers chose Christmas Day, a day during which the servers would likely be slow due to legitimate traffic anyway.  We’ll try our best to keep you guys updated as often as possible.  DownDetector.com is also a great place to monitor the number of complains coming in, showing clear drop-offs and spikes in attack activity.

Have any stories to share about your experiences with the outage?  Let us know below!