Video game comoany, Blizzard Entertainment, has been the vicitm of a distributed-denial-of-service (DDoS) cyber attack. The DDoS attack was launched against the company on June 25, and caused a number of games that Blizzard hosts to go offline, including Diablo 4 and World of Warcraft. The disruption was noted by players across Blizzard’s titles, with some taking to Blizzard’s forums to post about the cyber attack. One user, who uses the screen name ‘Gibs’, made a post entitled ‘DDoS attack – guess we just have to wait this one out.
“Looks like Blizzard are under siege…note on [Blizzard.net] saying they are under attack right now. Its not just Diablo 4 that is impacted,” they said. In a tweet about the situation posted on June 25, Blizzard Entertainment’s customer support team said that they were actively monitoring the attack which was “affecting latency/connections to its games”. Three hours later, the company posted an updated which said that the DDoS attacks against the network had ended. They also said that any players still having issues should try troubleshooting their connection.
No reason for the DDoS attack has yet been given, however some players have speculated that it was an act of retaliation against Blizzard Entertainment. One member of Blizzard’s player forums remarked that it was “not surprising” that a cyber attack was launched against the company. Blizzard Entertainment itself has faced a number of controversies over the past few years, from accusations of having a “frat boy” company culture that created an unsafe working environment, to fans unhappy with the latest releases from Blizzard like Diablo 4 and Overwatch 2 Season 5. As of the time of writing, the perpetrator of the cyber attack is still unknown.
