Cyber Incident Victim: Activision Blizzard
Date:
Aug 2016
Location:
United States of America
Summary
Blizzard's Battle.net servers experienced widespread latency, connection, and login disruptions across multiple games including Overwatch, World of Warcraft, and Hearthstone due to a DDoS attack claimed by hacker group PoodleCorp, though the company did not confirm this attribution. While the DDoS was resolved, unrelated technical issues affecting World of Warcraft servers and Overwatch player disconnections remained under investigation. The incident coincided with the launch of a seasonal in-game event and followed recent enforcement actions against Overwatch cheaters, which had generated player backlash. PoodleCorp had previously targeted other gaming platforms and hinted at future attacks.
| CIA Posture | Motives | Tactics, Techniques & Procedures |
|---|---|---|
| Available to members | 1 motive | 1 technique |
| Threat Actor | Type | Location |
|---|---|---|
| 1 actor | Available to members | Available to members |
Description
On August 3, 2016, Blizzard Entertainment's Battle.net online gaming service experienced widespread disruptions due to a distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack. The attack caused significant latency issues, login failures, and connection problems affecting multiple popular titles including Overwatch, World of Warcraft, and Hearthstone. Blizzard confirmed the ongoing attack through an official forum post, acknowledging stability issues across all games while their network engineers worked to mitigate the attack. Hacker group PoodleCorp publicly claimed responsibility for the attack via Twitter, though Blizzard did not independently verify this claim at the time of reporting. PoodleCorp had previously claimed responsibility for DDoS attacks against Pokémon Go servers and indicated intentions to target another gaming network soon. Service interruptions occurred during Blizzard's inaugural seasonal event launch celebrating the Rio de Janeiro Olympics, which introduced limited-time cosmetic items and a Lucioball game mode scheduled from August 2 to August 22.
Blizzard's Customer Support Twitter account later confirmed the cessation of the DDoS attack and restoration of Battle.net login capabilities, though investigations continued into World of Warcraft server disruptions. The company separately addressed unrelated Overwatch player disconnections, clarifying this particular issue was not DDoS-related and required separate troubleshooting. This incident followed June 2016 outages attributed to alleged DDoS attacks by hacker group Lizard Squad. Concurrently, Blizzard had implemented a new ban wave against Overwatch players using triggerbot cheating software, enforcing their zero-tolerance policy against unfair advantages. The bans generated controversy among affected users who criticized the disciplinary actions. No additional technical details regarding attack vectors, traffic volumes, or mitigation techniques were disclosed in available reports.