Ubisoft's DRM Servers Attacked Again

[commasplice]

Snip.

I think this is probably a good time to note that I'm not really a tech geek. At all. I have a passing knowledge of these things (at best) and I only kind of understood you. Basically, you need to need a lot of computers to send enough information to overload the target, right? So... The question on my mind is how they could know any of those machines were trying to do anything other than legitimately play the game. Do machines that participate in a DDoS attack typically send more information faster than actual users or is it just the sheer force of numbers that does the server in? Were there more "players" trying to contact the server than sold copies of the game or something?

From what you're telling me, it still sounds like it would be hard to say definitively whether this was an attack or not. I mean, it's safe to assume a lot of people bought the game, right? Couple that with the fact that it's the launch period, so everyone's trying to play through at once, while on a brand-new server, and it sounds like half the attackers' work is already done for them.

 

[silverxxx]

Ok it's called a bot net, there are many, many computers controlled by one person, usually infected by a virus or the like. It could be YOUR computer too. The point is there can be 10000+ computers so it is more than enough to crash one server.

They did this (apparently) in response to the anti-pirating measures Ubisoft uses.

 

[HuntrRose]

Snip.

I think this is probably a good time to note that I'm not really a tech geek. At all. I have a passing knowledge of these things (at best) and I only kind of understood you. Basically, you need to need a lot of computers to send enough information to overload the target, right? So... The question on my mind is how they could know any of those machines were trying to do anything other than legitimately play the game. Do machines that participate in a DDoS attack typically send more information faster than actual users or is it just the sheer force of numbers that does the server in? Were there more "players" trying to contact the server than sold copies of the game or something?

From what you're telling me, it still sounds like it would be hard to say definitively whether this was an attack or not. I mean, it's safe to assume a lot of people bought the game, right? Couple that with the fact that it's the launch period, so everyone's trying to play through at once, while on a brand-new server, and it sounds like half the attackers' work is already done for them.

They can easily see the difference between a regular DDoS attack and a user connecting by looking at the type and/or content of packages coming in.