Back in December 2013, a huge DDOS attack took down the likes of Steam, PSN and EA's Origin, leaving a lot of people unimpressed over Christmas. It didn't take long for authorities to investigate the cyber attack and eventually, a suspect was arrested. The case has been in the works …
Read More »Some users still can’t play Assassin’s Creed Odyssey after Ubisoft resolves DDoS attack
Ubisoft experienced “a series of DDoS attacks” yesterday, disrupting the official launch of Assassin’s Creed Odyssey. While the publisher initially stated that issues have since been resolved, services still seem to be impacted, preventing owners from playing the new game. As usual, Ubisoft took to its forums to address the …
Read More »Google purges hundreds of Android apps for using phones for DDoS attacks
Due to Android’s open nature, it is easier for malicious software to make its way on to services like the Google Play Store. Google has been tightening things up over the last year but it seems that there is still work to be done. This week, Google purged around 300 …
Read More »Teen behind Xbox Live and PSN DoS attacks sentenced to two years in prison
It looks like the person behind the infamous Microsoft and Sony DDOS attack back in 2014 has been sentenced to two years in prison. The teen was 16 years old when he began selling access to his network of breached IP addresses, earning around £386,000 in the process. The ‘Titanium …
Read More »Some Blizzard games are being affected by a DDOS attack
If you are experiencing any issues with Battle Net or some of Blizzard's games right now, then that would be down to a DDOS attack going on at the moment. The attack comes on the final day of Overwatch's Summer Games event, making this your last chance to get hold …
Read More »Anonymous affiliate group shuts down KKK website
In a continuation of its age old practices of denying web presences to those it deems unworthy of them, an affiliate group of the hacktivist movement, Anonymous, has taken down a website run by the Ku Klux Klan. The White Knights of the KKK site has yet to reappear, after …
Read More »Battle.net’s DDOS hiccup. Don’t worry, it’s back to normal already
If you tried to play a Battle.net game this morning, whether it was Overwatch, Hearthstone, Heroes of the Storm of something else, you might have run into a few difficulties. That's because some nefarious individuals launched a DDOS attack on the service. Fortunately Blizzard's response was swift and exact and …
Read More »Valve finally sends emails to those affected by Steam Christmas error
Back over Christmas, Valve's Steam Store suffered from a bug that allowed users on the Steam Store to see the details of other user accounts. During this, those affected had their personal emails, names, addresses, phone numbers and more revealed to total strangers and now, months later, Valve has finally …
Read More »Google launches free DDOS prevention tool
Distributed Denial of Service (DDOS) have become fairly common these days and are often thrown at outspoken news sites. However, Google wants to help protect against that and has released ‘Project Shield' which is designed to prevent DDOS attacks from affecting your network by rerouting traffic through Google's web infrastructure. …
Read More »Xbox Live is back up after 15 hours of issues
Last night, Xbox Live began having a lot of issues with its core services, which spread through to things like app connectivity and games. During this time, people had trouble launching apps like YouTube, Netflix, Plex or catch up services, users also couldn't access things like the store or go …
Read More »Skype to start hiding IP addresses to protect users
Microsoft is finally going to start hiding user IP addresses by default on Skype. It has been known for years now that there is an exploit within Skype that allows you to obtain an IP address, which can then be used to launch a DDOS attack on someone and while …
Read More »Valve finally explains Steam’s Christmas day accident
It has taken a few days but Valve has finally explained exactly what went wrong with Steam on Christmas day, when a caching error allowed users to see someone else's account while visiting the Steam store. This meant that information like a user's address, phone number, and email address were …
Read More »Hacking group threatens to DDOS Xbox Live and PSN on Christmas
Last year over the course of Christmas day, a group of cyber criminals launched a series of DDOS attacks on Xbox Live and the PlayStation Network. Some involved claimed it was to force kids to appreciate family time over the holiday, others claimed it was due to poor security on …
Read More »TalkTalk website hit with major data breach, receives ransom note
Telecoms operator TalkTalk has been hit by what has been described by police as a “significant”, attack on its website, resulting in the potential leaking of banking and personal data for some or all of the company's four million customers around the UK. While police and online-crime divisions are investigating the …
Read More »UK tech retailers suffering from a series of DDOS attacks
Over the last 24 hours it would seem that several prominent UK tech retailers have been targeted by DDOS attacks, which may also turn out to be linked to a group demanding large Bitcoin ransoms. Affected sites include Overclockers UK, Novatech, SCAN and Aria. All of these websites have been …
Read More »Imgur vulnerability allowed links to DDOS 4Chan and 8Chan
This week, Imgur discovered a vulnerability in its system that made it possible for people to inject malicious code in to an image link from the site. These links were then used to leverage genuine user's browsers in order to send a DDOS attack out to the sites 4Chan and …
Read More »Daybreak Studios hit with DDOS after CEO’s Twitter rant
Earlier this week, Daybreak Studios CEO, John Smedley, went on a bit of a Twitter rant directed at a cyber criminal responsible for calling in a bomb threat on one of his flights last year alongside a series of other personal attacks. While on Twitter, Smedley made a few legal …
Read More »Hola speaks out on recent botnet accusations
Last week, it was revealed that one of the most popular VPN extensions for Google Chrome, Hola, had been caught out selling its user's bandwidth via a separate company in order to allow attackers to send DDOS attacks to other sites or services. At the time, it was 8Chan that …
Read More »Popular Chrome extension Hola sold your bandwidth for botnets
One of the most popular VPN extensions for Google Chrome, Hola, has been caught out selling its users' “idle resources”, like your bandwidth, via a separate company for botnet use. This means that users of Hola likely had their bandwidth sold for DDOS attacks. Hola was often used as a …
Read More »Lizard Squad member pleads guilty to 23 charges
One of Lizard Squad's members, a 17 year old teen from Canada, has appeared in court and pleaded guilty to 23 charges relating to online abuse. He was charged with counts of extortion, criminal harassment and public mischief. Since the boy is only 17, he can't be named publicly but …
Read More »China’s ‘Great Cannon’ could be its most powerful digital weapon
China has had a firm grasp on its country's internet for decades, with researchers in the 90's terming its mix of legislation and technological censorship, “The Great Firewall.” On a more aggressive front, it's maintained divisions of the military exclusively for hacking for years now but it may have recently given birth to …
Read More »Github hit by multi-day DDOS attack
The collaborative programming site GitHub has been hit by a sustained denial of service attack over the weekend, with suggestions that China may be behind it. While not entirely clear, it's thought that the reasoning may be to shut down projects designed to circumvent Chinese censorship tools. At last count …
Read More »UK police have arrested second Lizard Squad member
The UK police have arrested a second member of online troll group, Lizard Squad, following the Christmas day DDOS attacks on Xbox Live and the PlayStation Network. An 18 year old was taken in to custody today after being linked directly to the attacks. The arrest was carried out by …
Read More »Xbox Live and PSN back online following Christmas day attacks
Xbox Live and the PlayStation Network are back online following the Christmas period DDOS attacks which saw both services suffer from issues for a few days. The attack was carried out by Lizard Squad, a group of ‘hackers' that threatened to take down Microsoft and Sony's respective online services earlier this …
Read More »North Korean internet returns after suspicious downtime
North Korea's internet went down last night, only returning online in a limited capacity early this morning. While the NK authorities have yet to report on the downing, at least internationally, the story was picked up by US news sources fairly quickly, prompting some to suggest that it may have …
Read More »Warlords of Draenor launch affected by server issues and DDOS attacks
World of Warcraft's fifth expansion, Warlords of Draenor, launched this week but unfortunately for those trying to play, Blizzard faced massive server issues in Europe and the North American servers faced DDOS attacks from those trying to sabotage the expansion's launch. Blizzard acknowledged the attacks on the World of Warcraft …
Read More »PSN DDOS hackers tweet bomb threat for Sony president flight
John Smedley, the president of Sony Online Entertainment, recently tweeted that we was flying “back to SD”, so would be offline for three hours. However what happened over the next few was somewhat different than what you might expect. A hacking group that is also claiming responsibility for a recent …
Read More »uTorrent version 3.4 speeds up downloading
uTorrent has been criticised a lot over the past couple of years, often for going from its very minimalist, simple client to a much more packed piece of software combining lots of new features. However, this latest update is likely to please even the most jaded of downloaders, as it …
Read More »Australian Wikileaks site hit by DDOS
The Australian version of the Wikileaks Political Party site has been hit by a denial of service attack. It's been down for just over 12 of hours and is still very difficult to access at the time of writing. It does appear after a while, but it's not quick. Claiming …
Read More »Kim Dotcom’s Mega hit by DDOS attack
Kim Dotcom's file locker website, Mega.co.nz, was hit earlier this morning by a denial of service (DoS) attack and no one has yet to claim responsibility. Perhaps more surprisingly though, internet mogul Kim Dotcom, has yet to point the finger or even mention the attack on his oft-used Twitter account …
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