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PhantomSquad Hackers Begin Their Xmas DDoS Attacks By Taking Down EA Servers (softpedia.com)

Posted by timothy on from the bad-childhoods dept.

An anonymous reader writes: The hacking crew was not kidding about their Christmas DDoS attacks on Xbox & PSN. This morning the group started warmup attacks on the EA network, taking it down for 3 hours. The attacks were severe enough to take down the network completely, and EA issued apologies on its Twitter account. Phantom Squad is now carrying out DDoS attacks on PSN. Users started reporting outages in small areas around the world.

14 of 127 comments (clear)

  1. Refresh my memory by Revek · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Whats the goal? Is to just be pricks?

    1. Re:Refresh my memory by cfalcon · · Score: 5, Insightful

      The DDOS attacks will continue until network infrastructure prevents it.

      I think this group wants a name for themselves, and that may be the end of it, but who knows. The point isn't to ask why the rain falls- it's to wonder why we can't build a roof.

    2. Re:Refresh my memory by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Whats the goal? Is to just be pricks?

      What else are you going to do from mom's basement? Especially when the girl you've never actually talked to has gone to visit relatives and you turned off her phone?

    3. Re:Refresh my memory by gweilo8888 · · Score: 4, Insightful

      They're just trying to inflate their sense of self-importance, and calling them hackers as this article does helps accomplish that. Just like terrorists, the only way to stop these assholes is to stop giving them the spotlight (unless it is to mock them). Either call them what they are -- script kiddies -- or just don't talk about them at all. Even if they manage to DDOS your favorite game server, in the bigger picture they've accomplished nothing at all. Get up, stretch your legs, find something else to do and ignore them. It's what they deserve.

    4. Re:Refresh my memory by meerling · · Score: 3, Insightful

      In short, Yes.
      Though I did hear a rumor that they were also doing it to demonstrate their attack system so they can sell/rent it to people.
      There are many ways to demonstrate something like that, but of course, they chose to do it in a gratuitously mean fashion that will piss of lots of people.
      Other than that, they're just trying to wave their dicks around. Pretty much a failure at impressing anyone, it's not like this is a new accomplishment or anything, they are just doing the same thing lots of people have done before them, so their just a bunch of wannabe griefers with little to no talent.

    5. Re:Refresh my memory by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

      This is pretty sexist. It can be a girl in mom's basement that is doing this too!

  2. Spoiled Little Children by JimMcc · · Score: 2

    Maybe at some point in their lives, if they ever grow up, they'll learn that just because you can doesn't mean you should

  3. Live attack map by guardiangod · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Just look at Norse Attack Map

    Lots o NTPf traffic from China

    http://map.norsecorp.com/

    1. Re:Live attack map by Dutch+Gun · · Score: 2

      Don't expect anything but the thinnest veneer of an excuse as to why they're doing this. They're going this because they're angsty teenage males with lots of testosterone and no power, so this is how they vent their frustration at the unfairness of the (first) world. Taking down a multi-billion-dollar international corporation's network is undoubtedly a power trip for them.

      It's really nothing more than digital vandalism. I wish the media would label it as such rather than "hacking".

      --
      Irony: Agile development has too much intertia to be abandoned now.
  4. as they should by Gravis+Zero · · Score: 2, Funny

    EA issue apologies on its Twitter account

    it's about time! have you seen what they do to game series'? now what's all this business about DDoS attacks? ;)

    --
    Anons need not reply. Questions end with a question mark.
  5. Go online to play an offline game by Calydor · · Score: 3, Interesting

    If it wasn't for validation servers for strictly offline games, eg. The Sims, this wouldn't be half as bad. It's when people don't get to play an offlline game because a server somewhere is down or messed up that things get ugly.

    --
    -=This sig has nothing to do with my comment. Move along now=-
    1. Re:Go online to play an offline game by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      And things should get ugly. People should be pissed at the game companies that require online for single player.

  6. The correct solution by rossz · · Score: 2

    I got in trouble at work once when I proposed a solution to deal with the massive number of attacks we were receiving from China. I said, "block China completely and call it a day." It seems I was "culturally insensitive."

    --
    -- Will program for bandwidth
    1. Re:The correct solution by Calydor · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Depends on the site.

      If you're running a local e-commerce site that sells only to a single state or county rather than the entire country, let alone to China, blocking China at the gate doesn't really seem that bad of a business move.

      --
      -=This sig has nothing to do with my comment. Move along now=-