Posted on August 15, 2021 at 6:39 PM
Threat Actors Launch DDoS Attack on Final Fantasy 14 servers
Players of the popular Final Fantasy 14 were prevented from having access to their accounts due to a DDoS attack that impacted the gaming site.
The firm behind the game, Square Enix, announced the attack on Friday, stating that players may not be able to access their accounts because of the attack.
“We are currently experiencing technical difficulties because of a DDoS attack,” the firm announced.
Players who were already playing the game were booted out, while those trying to log into their systems were denied.
Gamers booted out
A DDoS attack is used by threat actors who want to disrupt server operations by flooding them with an influx of traffic.
Generally, the threat actors use compromised PCs to attack the networks and send too many requests to the servers, eventually overpowering them.
When the threat actors launched their DDoS attacks, the game developer went into a defensive mood to launch countermeasures against the attack. However, the measures were taken 12 hours after the DDoS attack started.
Square has also updated users, announcing that the attacks have been curtailed. But the measures were not enough to prevent an initial disruption to the company’s servers.
Square Enix admitted that the DDoS attack disrupted the server operations, as the players were disconnected from the servers. The attack also led to a limited transfer of data from the players to the server.
The attack affected 12 EU servers
Square Enix has several servers for the Final Fantasy 14 game. However, according to the company, the DDoS attack only impacted 12 of its servers. Presently, the gaming firm has 32 servers in Japan and 24 servers in North America.
As players’ interests in the game and other games grew, the firm had to create more servers to accommodate the increased numbers. With the increase in the game’s popularity, there are now several severs those players cannot create new characters in.
Players react to the development
At the prime of the DDoS attack, some players of the game started reacting to the experiences they were having. Many of them voiced their frustrations, as they were unable to log into the servers. Many of them went to Final Fantasy 14 Reddit page to complain about the situation. “My entire week of free time is gone,” a player, with Reddit username NejatMolla, complained.
Another player, with Reddit username Probablyonmobile, was angrier with the perpetrators of the attack. He questioned the motives and benefits of those who could get satisfied from attacking an MMO in such a manner. According to him, he finds it difficult to believe someone will have the satisfaction to DDoS attack such as an organization.
Gaming industry suffering more DDoS attacks
The gaming industry has seen a higher growth during the Covid-19 pandemic. However, cyberattacks and DDoS attacks have also increased in the industry. According to a content delivery network provider, Akamai, the gaming industry has seen more cyberattacks than any other industry since the pandemic.
It reported that there were 264,064, 297 web application attacks in the gaming industry in 2020, which is about 4% of the entire attacks it tracked globally.
The firm also noted that cybercriminals usually spend time on Discord to share best practices and coordinate their efforts in the industry, discussing various attack techniques.
Another report cited that of all the attacks on gaming and gambling platforms since the past year, more than 60% of the targeted online gaming firms. The DDoS attack is strong enough to boot thousands of gamers at a time from the platform.
Once the attack occurs, it can set the affected company a couple of days back, putting them at a disadvantage against other competitors. However, it seems the attack on Final Fantasy 14 servers were curtailed early, which did not have a massive disruption. The firm has confirmed that all servers have been protected and everything is back to normal.
