The games from the MMO specialist Daybreak Game Company have been affected by DDoS attacks in recent hours. Apparently, this is a retaliatory action by “hackers.”
Yesterday we reported that the CEO of the MMO studio DGC (H1Z1, Planetside 2, Everquest Next) John Smedley announced to a cybercriminal that he would sue his parents. The 17-year-old “hacker” had played dirty with Smedley last year and had only been sentenced to 2 years probation by a Finnish court. However, other criminal proceedings are still ongoing.
As a “reaction” to these tweets, the “group” of the cybercriminal apparently ensured that from yesterday until recently, the games, sites, and login systems of DGC were subjected to a severe DDoS attack. It was only in the last few hours that the situation could be managed.
Update: After signaling all clear via Twitter around 3:10 PM, problems were reported again at 5:02 PM.
As is often the case, it is unclear who is truly responsible. In these situations, there are often “copycats” who claim such things for themselves. Hacker groups, whether they deserve the name or not, rarely have official communication channels for obvious reasons.
The night before last, Smedley expressed his frustration over the “too lenient” Finnish ruling against a cybercriminal in a series of angry tweets. Following that, parts of the internet discussed whether Smedley had overreacted. The company DGC itself stated that it does not comment on employees’ statements, even if that employee is the CEO.
Smedley has no intention of backing down.
Smedley appeared again on reddit yesterday and told fans what exactly made him so angry: He said he was swatted multiple times . Photos of his father’s grave had been sent to him with ugly things written on them. His entire banking history was publicly posted online and much more.
Smedley wrote, for example: I want the gang to go to jail. No one should be able to do such things without facing consequences. […] You can think what you want about it. It’s my life. This shit that has happened to me and my family is real, and I have no intention of backing down.
