UKRAINE 2021/06/18 – This photo illustration shows Activision Blizzard logo on a smartphone display, right in front Blizzard Entertainment logo. (Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images
SUN VALLEY, ID – July 10: Bobby Kotick (chief executive officer of Activision Blizzard) attends the Allen & Company Sun Valley Conference. It took place in Sun Valley on July 10, 2019. For the week-long conference, the Sun Valley Resort hosts some of the most influential and wealthy businesspeople from finance, technology, and media.
Activision Blizzard’s bad luck seems to continue. Hackers were able to gain access to their servers, leading to several games being shut down.
(Photo by PavloGonchar/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images
UKRAINE 2021/06/18 – This photo illustration shows Activision Blizzard’s Logo on a Smartphone Screen, right infront of the Blizzard Entertainment Logo.
Digital Trends says it was a DDoS attack, or distributed Denial of Service (distributed Denial of Service), that affected the company’s servers. Battle.net clients reported it at 10:15 AM EST on December 14.
Many players had trouble logging in and experienced issues while playing “Overwatch,” “World of Warcraft”, or “Hearthstone.” Overwatch players claimed that they were kicked out of some games (mostly ranked ones) or were subject to penalty for leaving unannounced.
Players also had difficulty getting into ranked match-queues across all games. DotESports claimed that Overwatch was the most difficult-hit .
The entire cybersecurity breach took just five hours. Activision Blizzard does not know who the attacker was nor if they received any critical information.
The company finally revealed that a DDoS attack on Battle.net was underway, warning that players could experience disconnections and high latency.
This will not be the first DDoS attack by the publisher/game deveoper in recent years.
A second attack put “Overwatch”, “Call of Duty: Warzone” services on hold in November. According to The Verge, this attack took place via their Twitter customer service account. It was only for an hour but it had a serious impact on operations.
There are currently no additional details about the attack.
Also, see DDoS attacks: More complex and larger
DDoS Attacks are unlikely to be Activision Blizzard’s biggest worry
DDoS attacks are often disastrous. Other pressing issues may need to be addressed by the company.
It is no exaggeration when we say that Blizzard experienced serious financial problems this year. Blizzard was faced with many problems this year. These included a wave of sexual abuse accusations and layoffs for QA contractors. Despite many calls to him to resign, Bobby Kotick, the CEO of Blizzard has remained in that position.
(Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images).
SUNVALLEY (ID-JULY 10): Bobby Kotick, Activision Blizzard’s chief operating officer, is in Sun Valley. He attended the Allen & Company Sun Valley Conference, July 10, 2019, in Sun Valley (Idaho). This conference is a one-week event that brings together the wealthiest businesspeople in the media, finance and technology industries.
Other prominent players in the industry have spoken out. Phil Spencer, Xbox chief said that he was deeply disturbed by the events.
As a consequence, the company’s bottom line has been affected. According to Kotaku’s reports, shareholders are becoming sick of the drama. 2021 saw a 28% drop in share prices.
DDoS Basics
DDoS attacks, also known as cyberattacks, are designed to prevent services and operations from being performed. CompTIA says this causes major disruptions to companies’ day to day business operations.
In recent years, DDoS attacks have become more frequent among businesses. Blizzard, one of many, is one.
