Activision Blizzard Gets Hit With DDoS Attack; Multiple Games Affected

RJ Pierce, Tech Times 15 December 2021, 10:12 pm

Activision Blizzard's string of bad luck just seems to keep ongoing. This time, hackers got to their servers and managed to shut down several games.

(Photo : Pavlo Gonchar/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)
UKRAINE - 2021/06/18: In this photo illustration, Activision Blizzard logo of a video game company is seen on a smartphone screen in front of Blizzard Entertainment logo.

It was a DDoS (distributed denial of service) attack that got to the company's servers, according to Digital Trends. The breach was first reported at 10:15 PM EST last December 14th and mainly affected those who were using the Battle.net client.

Various players reportedly had trouble logging into their accounts, and suffered issues while playing "Overwatch," "World of Warcraft," and "Hearthstone." Some "Overwatch" players were also reporting that they were getting kicked out of games (ranked ones, most of the time), and were suffering penalties from unexpectedly leaving their games.

Aside from that, players were also struggling to get into ranked match queues across all games, but it seemed like "Overwatch" was the hardest-hit of all, as per DotESports.

The entire cybersecurity breach lasted for almost five hours. As of this writing, Activision Blizzard has no idea who did it, and whether they actually got some critical data.

The company then eventually announced that a DDoS attack is happening on their Battle.net client, saying that players might experience high latency and disconnections.

However, this won't be the first major DDoS attack for the embattled game developer/publisher in recent times.

Back in November, another attack put services for "Overwatch" (again) and "Call of Duty: Warzone" on hold. According to The Verge, the attack happened via their customer service account on Twitter. It lasted far shorter at just one hour, but it was long enough to severely hamper operations.

For now, there are no other details concerning the latest attack.

DDoS Attacks Are Likely The Least Of Activision Blizzard's Worries

DDoS attacks can be devastating, and that's a fact. But the company likely has way more pressing issues to deal with-of a rather disturbing nature.

To say that Blizzard has been in dire straits this year is an understatement. A wave of sexual abuse allegations, QA contractor layoffs, and CEO Bobby Kotick remaining in his post despite widespread clamors for him to step down are just among the many troubles that the company has had to deal with.

(Photo : Drew Angerer/Getty Images)
SUN VALLEY, ID - JULY 10: Bobby Kotick, chief executive officer of Activision Blizzard, attends the annual Allen & Company Sun Valley Conference, July 10, 2019 in Sun Valley, Idaho. Every July, some of the world's most wealthy and powerful businesspeople from the media, finance, and technology spheres converge at the Sun Valley Resort for the exclusive weeklong conference.

Things have gotten so bad that other big-name game industry players have weighed in. Among them is Xbox head Phil Spencer, who has stated that he is "deeply disturbed" by what's been happening there.

As a result, the company's business has plummeted. In a report by Kotaku, even shareholders seem to be getting tired of all the drama, as share prices have been down 28% for 2021.

DDoS Basics

For the uninitiated, a DDoS attack is a type of cyberattack which does as its name implies: it denies services or operations from being performed. As a result, companies suffer a mostly crippling interruption of their day-to-day business, according to CompTIA.

DDoS attacks have been very common among businesses recently, and Blizzard is just one victim out of many.

This article is owned by Tech Times

Written by RJ Pierce