Player advantage DDoS attacks fall into a similar attack motivation bracket as business rivalry motivated attacks.
We wrote elsewhere about this. Taking down or slowing the service of a rival competitor can significantly affect their bottom line, and negatively impact customer trust levels, leading to ongoing challenges for businesses.
In a research report last year, Kaspersky Lab said that 43% of DDoS victims believed a competitor was behind the attack, as opposed to 38% who suspected cybercriminals. In Asia-Pacific, the figure grew to 56% who thought themselves to be the target of a rival business via DDoS, compared to 37% in Western Europe.
DDoS attacks used to gain competitive advantage, particularly related to offshore gaming houses, helped DDoS defence companies get off the ground as they were needed to help mitigate the attacks. Taking a gambling house offline just before a game or event would result in gamblers placing their bets with an alternative house that was still online.
Player advantage helps propagate the spread of DDoS attacks against online role-play video gaming sites. Attackers will launch DDoS attacks against individual players to block their gaming experience and disrupt their play. They may also wish to damage reputations or cause larger disruptions in gaming services.
Motivation might also include the desire for notoriety from peer groups or media attention.
The end-of-year holiday season is often a particularly busy time for DDoS attacks in the gaming sector as new games are launched. As games become more networked, more players are likely to be affected. This trend has been fuelled by the increased ease of use of booter/stresser sites and DDoS-for-hire services and according to Akamai, “a population of frustrated online gamers, which increases the DDoS risk for this industry”.
According to Akamai’s research, online gaming sites are the number one target of DDoS attacks. They are often targeted repeatedly, in which attackers “hammer away at high-value organizations, regardless of effect, looking for a moment when defenses might drop.” DDoS attacks particularly affect gaming services because even the slightly latency drop can have a noticeable effect on players’ ability to play the game.