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BattleFront.com Down For Maintenance...


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Im no expert and I hate to speculate but that virus did seem, well, awfully tailored to Battlefront.com. I mean, an email that is relatively well written promising something that many people here have wanted for ages (I assumed the client program was to do with multiplayer capability) that linked to the central website.

BFC is not a big company so it seems to me like a targeted attack rather than a random one. I would love to be wrong though.

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Wow, at least the forum is working again. Today is the first day I've been able to access the website since I saw that odd e-mail in my inbox. I didn't click on anything mostly because all the links were disabled in the e-mail that I got and the formatting was terrible so it looked really strange. There was no typical battlefront background and everything was scrunched over to the left side. I don't understand why someone would attack the battlefront website like this. It's just pathetic. :mad:

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Someone like Dorosh?

I don't think he is that evil. I could be wrong I suppose; I haven't had any contact with him in over a year and he was going around the bend at that time, so who knows what kind of space he ended up in? But I truly don't think he is that far gone.

Anyway, I have a hunch that this came from somewhere in the EU. I don't know what put that in my head, but there it is.

Michael

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That's unfair and unjustified Elvis.

I'm joking. This type of thing is not within Michael's expertise (I believe) even if he had the will. Which I do not seriously believe he has. Just the first name that popped into my head when I read this quote:

Yeah, my first thought when I heard about it was that someone must have a powerful grudge against BFC and the community it services.

Ya gotta admit the guy fits that bill........ But yes. It is unfair because even though I was joking he is unable to respond.

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Guess what I was about to assemble when Mr. Dingleberry struck? Yup, a bone! I'm going to start on it tomorrow and will have it up for the weekend.

Steve

Considering your recent track record, I won't hold my breath for it. I'll believe it when I see it. :D

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No doubt Battlefront was targeted specifically, though it is unlikely that someone woke up one day and said "I am going to hack www.battlefront.com". The more likely case is a hacker was interested in being a major prick to someone and we were unfortunate enough to fit a certain profile. My understanding of how people like us get targeted is roughly as follows...

Someone develops a certain expertise to get into a server with very specific software versions and configurations. This requires certain skills, tools, and experience tailored to that particular setup. The more a server deviates from that profile, the more difficult it is for him to hack. Much like someone who is used to demolishing residential housing is not likely setup to also demolish a skyscraper, and vice versa.

The hacker goes about selecting his victim by scanning the Internet to find servers which have the sort of profile he is looking for. When he finds one that he thinks he can hack, he takes a look at it. If it is just Grandma Johnson sharing her favorite pie recipes, he passes because there's no payoff for bringing down that one. What he's instead looking for is something with the potential for either monetary gain or bragging rights within the hacker "community" (I use that term loosely, since they know nothing about community).

Battlefront looks like a juicy target. We are in the games industry which supposedly makes us rich (har-har!). Our core business is online, therefore any disruption to us is immediate and substantial. We have a very active website (which might also be something the hacker profiles) which means pressure on us to get the thing back up quickly.

Three things the hacker didn't count on. First... we aren't stupid enough to give into blackmail. Second... we were already mostly ready to abandon the server he hacked anyway. Third... the new server doesn't use a bug ridden Microsoft product for its OS :D

To pick up on the latter point... if we were moving servers to another Windows server we would have had a LOT more difficulty defending ourselves from a similar attack because (without a doubt) he was exploiting security flaws inherent in the OS. We are hopeful that simply moving to a different OS changed our profile significantly enough that this particular hacker will give up because we no longer fit his profile. It would be easier for him to just move on to some other hapless victim than to invest the time into us.

At least we hope so.

Steve

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