The DDOS attacks on WildStar, Guild Wars 2, Hearthstone, EVE Online and other MMOs are likely attributed to a group that tweeted about these attacks on Twitter. According to their own statements, they have now disbanded.
What began with some DDOS attacks on servers of NCSoft, CCP, and Jagex, affecting especially players of Guild Wars 2, WildStar, Runescape, and Eve Online, reached a first bizarre peak when the “group” of American Airlines announced that they had heard one of their planes might have a bomb on board.
Popular President of Sony Online Entertainment Main Target
On board the plane: Although no bomb, but the president of Sony Online Entertainment, John Smedley, who did not find this funny at all. Due to the bomb threat, his flight was diverted and he sat in Phoenix on his luggage. Smedley is appreciated for his closeness to fans and his presence on social networks, and is praised as a pioneer of a new transparency policy among the major developers. He had tweeted shortly before that he would be without internet for several hours due to a long-haul flight.
Unpleasant aftertaste: Since the incident, Smedley’s Twitter account has been inactive. It is suspected that Smedley has lost the desire for too much transparency after recent events.
The “group” took pleasure in being referred to by some media as a “threat to national security” during this incident.
Twitter account steadily grew, targets became larger
But not only MMOs or airplanes were affected by their actions: The group put Battle.net under DDOS pressure, interfered with the Playstation Network, attacked the servers of League of Legends, and entertained themselves with their constantly growing Twitter account. While they brought Twitch down, they encouraged users to write the name of the group on their foreheads, then they would let Twitch run again.
These actions were repeatedly accompanied by “joking” comments, pretending that the FBI was at their door, as if they were about to be arrested or acting on behalf of the terrorist organization ISIS.
Fact situation extremely unclear
The information about what is true and what is nonsense is extremely sparse. Other members from the so-called “hacker” scene on Twitter claim certain “successes” for themselves.
The fact is: The group has been silent in recent days. They tweeted that two of the group members had been arrested. They also referred to a homepage where they presented themselves as a sort of modern version of “Robin Hood and the Merry Men”. They are not terrorists, merely a gang of guys who have too much time. But now the stressful everyday life has caught up with them and they have to stop after two eventful weeks. They even made fun of a media site that had particularly inflated the threat posed by the group.
Mein MMO says: Whether the “Someone was arrested” tweets are true is unknown. They had tweeted this a few times before. And whether the group really disbanded permanently is also hard to say. We somewhat doubt whether it was really a “group” or just one single guy. After all, the Twitter account had regular 8-hour breaks. Quite conceivable that despite the announcement, things will continue in a few days: Typically, people find it difficult to step away from such a lot of attention. Or we might hear from them again when the FBI is not just knocking on their door in funny tweets, but seriously.
That the group, after initial media reticence, was mentioned by almost all news sites by name with links and direct quotes, that the number of their Twitter followers steadily increased, and how powerless those attacked were against their DDOS actions, should leave many with a bitter taste in their mouth.
Whether one should really label the group, as many media did, as “hackers” is questionable. As one user said in a tweet to the group: “The most intense thing you did was the bomb threat to American Airlines. And that requires no hacker skills, just a payphone.”
