DDoS Attacks Cripple Real Money Trading Sites

WhaddayaMeanIHaveToLevelUpTheOldWay writes "A massive denial of service attack has disabled some of the world's largest virtual goods trading sites. The Korea-based sites hit by the attack are responsible for most of the country's estimated $1bn annual trade in virtual gold, weapons and other items for games like World of Warcraft. Local press reports are blaming Chinese botnet controllers for the attacks and claim that this is an extortion attempt. The sites affected have been offline for four days and reportedly handle more than 90 percent of Korea's online item trading — a business now worth more than $3m a day, according to Korean government statistics."

Comments

the people behind the ddos

[JoshEanes]

This just in - the ddos attackers were identified as all the night elf hunters in the game trying to buy gold at the same time. for an encore, they will find the nearest mailbox and type /dance

I doubt its extortion

[Anonymous Coward]

If these companies make 3 million dollars a day according to the Korean government is seems rather silly to just ask for money.

What seems more likely is Chinese gold farming companies are hoping to take the place of the currently unreachable Korean gold farms.