August 1st: Doomsday?

[Squirrel]

Full story: https://mic.com/articles/149049/is-..._medium=future&utm_campaign=social#.o2XXzbQJe

Take a read of the article and see what you think. Do you think they'll go through with it or will Niantic manage to defend from the planned attack with the time they have available? Will you change your Pokémon hunting plans based on this? And why do you think Pokémon Go has become such a target for these groups?

 

[VisualJae]

I've played a lot of online games that have sustained DDoS attacks in the past.

It's only a matter of time before these groups end up getting detained by authorities, especially when the DDoS costs people resources. DDoS attacks are easy to track for those who understand how it works. Most likely it's a group of bored brats at home thinking they're being cute.

 

[Mister Coffee]

Well if these guys have definitely done some successful large scale attacks in the past... then sadly (sigh) they'll probably do it to this game. Why? (sigh...) because they can and they don't care.

So... even though Monday Aug. 1st is my day off... and I know that I would most likely use my day off to play Pokemon GO. I will now mark it as a Pokemon GO dead zone day. Luckily the intent of the attack is just a lame flash of power so it will probably only be down for the day.

 

[Flower]

Ohh these guys. Yup.. these were the same guys that hacked YouTubers H3H3Productions and LeafyIsHere, as well as Boogie2988 and even others. It's honestly easy to track them down and I'm surprised it hasn't been done already... Kinda sad to waste your life doing that, tbh. I feel Niantic's going to easily counteract this, though. Poodlecorp's not playing around now with such a large-scale worldwide thing (being Pokémon GO) and it's just a matter of time before the majority of them are detained, and I hope it's done soon.

 

[Squirrel]

It feels a bit dumb to announce the attack this far in advanced if it's going to be a relatively simple style of attack like Jae suggested... Surely this kind of thing can be easily prepared against by Niantic? I guess forcing the company to put time and money into preparing this defence is probably big enough of a win for Poodlecorp given the frantic state of Go right now but I do struggle to see this really happening.

 

[Hiidoran]

What can you really even do to prevent a DDoS attack anyway? It just floods the server, but they'll be back up. The annoying part is the lack of service for us and the temporary loss of revenue for Niantic/Nintendo.

I'm not too worried about it, honestly. While I know that I have Aug 1st off, one day from GO won't upset me too much. It's too bad though that some people really have nothing better to do in their spare time than ruin everyone's fun. Brats.

 

[Esper]

Childish. When their parents find out they're doing this I hope they send them to their rooms with no desert.

 

[Sirfetch’d]

Not too surprising. This reminds me of that group that attacked multiple forums, showdown, and various gaming servers last year. It's quite sad that people are out there wanting to ruin one of the few things that seem to be bringing everyone together ;(

 

[Lunar]

As sad as this is I don't think Niantic will be able to defend against it, they haven't had the best of luck with their servers so far and I can only see this making things worse. Then again, we do have sometime until August 1st so let's hope they get prepared and that these kids are detained as soon as possible.

 

[UltimateFrosty08]

Niantic should just leave it be and have a team ready to track the hackers on August 1st

 

[Squirrel]

As sad as this is I don't think Niantic will be able to defend against it, they haven't had the best of luck with their servers so far and I can only see this making things worse. Then again, we do have sometime until August 1st so let's hope they get prepared and that these kids are detained as soon as possible.

Based on how the servers are coping today I wouldn't be at all shocked if you were right. You'd have thought by now they'd have a better grasp on coping with the strain but it's quite disappointing how slowly they're managing to work around it. It's a big shame but hopefully at least this attack will make the group easier to find.

 

[UltimateFrosty08]

Hey guys guess what I have just figured out the most scariest part of this the Pokémon Go servers will be shut down for 24 Hours like OMG Civilization is going to fall apart by some poodle loving 2 year olds.

 

[Worldslayer608]

I could think of a million and one ways they could better use their time and skills.

 

[Squirrel]

I could think of a million and one ways they could better use their time and skills.

Agreed - they claim to have technology worth thousands more than Niantic's net worth so if that's true it's astounding that they choose to waste it on this. Imagine what such talented people could do if they weren't such spoilt brats.

 

[Mawa]

I... I don't understand? Is this dangerous? Will we lose our things, be hacked and giving them important information about us?

I'll have the day off August 1st and I'll be in a bigger city with many Pokestop and more Pokemon!

 

[Squirrel]

I... I don't understand? Is this dangerous? Will we lose our things, be hacked and giving them important information about us?

Nah there's nothing dangerous about this as far as we know - it's more just people deciding to be
jerks and ruin everyone's time by taking down the servers for a day. The attack is expected to be flooding the servers with tons and tons of devices at the same time in order to make them crash for the day so there shouldn't be any safety issues there, just an annoying period of time :)

 

[Splishy Splashy]

First, hackers are stupid. Second, why would they give the Pokemon Go a heads up for like 2 weeks saying ooh watch out were planning a bigger attack. This just gives Niantic time to set up something to defend it as hard as possible. It would make a hell of a lot more sense not to announce the date and time they are going to do it and make it a surprise.

 

[Hiidoran]

Yes, but they're doing it simply for the publicity (read lulz). They announce it because they think it makes them look powerful and menacing. Using a DDoS attack to take joy away from people just for giggles isn't menacing - it's just annoying. There's not really much Niantic can do to prevent this, other than maybe have a team ready to start mass banning... even then, that won't do much good.

Better to just let it pass. It's not really a hacking, so your stuff and info are safe.

 

[Squirrel]

When the games' servers are already struggling so horrifically with just the strain from the activate player base it's hard to see them coping with this style attack. If there was anything they could do to properly prepare for this then I'm sure they would have used that same technology to stabilise their servers already so... yeah, going to be a boring day!

 

[Splishy Splashy]

I am already so busy with swim practice and then working as a Lifeguard that it probably won't affect my day much at all.