Blizzard Confirm WoW Classic is Getting DDoS Attacks

Since it’s launch late last month, WoW Classic (World of Warcraft) is proving to be hugely popular with players of the MMORPG. Yes, admittedly, some of them are finding it difficult to make the transition back to the older style of WoW. In addition, initial heavy queue times have been a problem. When I first attempted to log-in, I had to wait around 30-40 minutes.

With the initial hype dying down, however, and with the addition of new servers, Blizzard is at least giving Classic a chance to succeed. On the whole, so far things have been mostly positive. It’s great to be back in Azeroth!

In a report via Kotaku, however, it has been confirmed that within the last 24-hours a number of DDoS attacks on Blizzard’s classic servers have resulted in some significant disruption. If you haven’t been able to access your server at all, this is likely why!

WoW Classic Gets Strong DDoS Attack

While this has caused disruption, it is believed that the group behind it may have already been identified. A Twitter account under the name of ‘UkDrillas’ posted immediately before the disruption stating that they were planning to launch a DDoS attack. The account has since been suspended, but not before someone took a screengrab which you can see below.

For those of you unaware of the term, a DDoS attack is basically where you flood a server with traffic requests to the point it effectively shuts down. Think of it as being similar to you carrying a rucksack and continually having bricks placed in it. Sooner or later, you’re not going to be able to walk anymore. That is (pretty much) the exact nature of a DDoS attack on a website.

What Do We Think?

The issue only appears to have occurred on US servers but does appear to have had quite a significant impact. At the time of writing, it does appear that the disruption may have ended, but the group did since go on to claim that they will attack again.

It does highlight some of the problems which can occur in games such as this. Hopefully, however, although they have not commented yet, Blizzard will try and find a solution to this.

What do you think? – Let us know in the comments!