Those trying to sign onto the North American servers for World of Warcraft: Classic today ran into a few interruptions in their services. They would likely fail to connect at all, and those that managed to connect would soon be disconnected or otherwise disrupted from enjoying the game.
The result of the interruption wasn’t faulty Blizzard servers but a targetted DDoS attack against Blizzard’s servers. The attack soon spread to EU realms after interrupting service to nearly every NA realm on Classis, as well as taking down some Overwatch servers.
There was little mention of other Blizzard games. Hearthstone, Diablo III, and Heroes of the Storm seemed uninterrupted entirely. If this was a targetted attack, as is being claimed, it makes sense that they would go after Blizzard’s current biggest titles as they did. The attacks also took down “Retail” World of Warcraft, the modern version of the game that accompanies Classic. However, due to the massive popularity that the newly-released Classic has experienced, it seems that most of the attacks were focused there.
Some online services continue to be impacted by a series of DDoS attacks which are resulting in high latency and disconnections. These disruption effects have been felt by a portion of our players, impacting their gaming experience. Thank you again for your continued patience.
— Blizzard CS – The Americas (@BlizzardCS) September 7, 2019
Blizzard confirmed the DDoS attack several hours afterwards while still affected, leaving others a bit peeved at the delayed response. Before their announcement, a group claimed on social media that they had successfully carried out an attack that they had warned of about half an hour beforehand, claiming credit for the DDoS.
There’s no reason to mention their name or account, as they don’t deserve the recognition they so clearly desired to earn from their attack. More than that, there’s no proof it was truly them. It’s worth mentioning that their Twitter account has already been suspended due to their claims of responsibility.
Many fans were incensed that Blizzard allowed themselves to be attacked in this way. This is far from the first time that Blizzard servers have been DDoSed, with multiple attacks having occurred in the last few years alone.
DDoSing is highly illegal and carries with it heavy fines and jail time if found guilty. Last year, a hacker from Utah was found guilty of DDoSing several gaming platforms (including Blizzard) and was facing a maximum penalty of ten years and a $250,000 fine.
If the supposed attackers are found guilty, their consequences will undoubtedly last much longer than the results of their actions did for millions of players today. Blizzard’s servers are now completely functional, and the momentary interruption of service has now been rectified.
