Xbox Live Players Targeted In Denial-of-Service Attacks 77
The BBC reports on a growing trend where some Xbox Live players are launching denial-of-service attacks against those who beat them or otherwise irritate them in games. Quoting:
"'The smart thing about these Xbox tools is that they do not attack the Xbox Live network itself,' [Chris Boyd, director of malware research at Facetime Communications said.] He said the tools work by exploiting the way that the Xbox Live network is set up. Game consoles connecting to the Xbox network send data via the net, and for that it needs an IP address. Even better, said Mr Boyd, games played via Xbox Live are not hosted on private servers. The tools mean anyone with a few dollars can boot rivals off Xbox Live. 'Instead,' he said, 'a lot of games on Xbox Live are hosted by players.' ... For $20 (£13) some Xbox Live hackers will remotely access a customer's PC and set up the whole system so it can be run any time they need it. Some offer low rates to add compromised machines to a botnet and increase the amount of data flooding a particular IP address."
Re:Private servers (Score:3, Informative)
It should be noted that many games work this way. Not just Xbox games. Not just FPS games. This "tactic" is nothing new. It's just a DoS targetted at an opponent.
Re:The victims are the winners.. (Score:2, Informative)
He's commenting on the fact that so many morons use names that either have:
A reference to being "elite" or "leet", to use the script kiddie parlance.
A reference to some sort of mind altering substance, probably put in place as a pathetic show of how "cool" or "mature" the person thinks they are.
A reference to genitalia or sexual practices, used either for "shock" value or, like the above, as a sad little show of how "cool" or "mature" the person thinks they are.
A reference to a character, title, group or place within the Star Wars universe.
A number within the name, which most likely traces its roots back to the user being a current or former AOL customer and/or an unimaginative philistine and/or a lazy wart on the ass of life.
Or all of the above. For example 1337stoner92, drunkpussyeater16, darthmarijuana483, etc.
Re:Hyperbole? (Score:3, Informative)
Re:FTFA: (Score:2, Informative)
A lot of games use this model for organising online matches. Someone above made some great points about why this can be a positive, rather than a negative, way of doing things. Clearly you haven't RTFA as your online identity is no more at risk than if you were using a PC to browse the web. IP address is about the extent of it.
The players are paying for the rights to use Microsoft servers to find other players, to message each other, to access free game demos and videos (also available to free players), and a whole host of other benefits. XBox Live is widely regarded as being much better than Sony's version. Maybe you should level your grudge gun at some other aspect of Microsoft (and in some areas I fully admit they're doing a poor job), rather than using the somewhat flimsy excuse that having players host games instead of some central server is a bad thing.