Okay, so I had to look it up because I am not computer savvy like most people these days. For those like me, well…
Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks are usually done by individuals calling themselves “hacktivists.” Their purpose is to crash a website server by overwhelming it with activity by “bots” and is generally an aim with a political purpose.
I can’t see any political purpose for going after D3 servers. From that brief definition, that I cut and pasted from online, it doesn’t seem like a credit card or ID theft either, so what is the point? Is it more of a ‘hey, i’m bored, lets bog down some d3 servers?’ or Is there an actual end game for the attack?
DDoS these days is also done by bored teenagers.
But, attacking large companies certainly can be a political statement.
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It was not against D3 specifically. It impacted all the Blizzard games. The idea is that they flood some access point along the ISPs going to a company so that no legitimate traffic can get the. Imagine trying to call someone, but the line is flooded with thousands of spam calls.
The actual servers themselves are fine - it is just that you can’t get there when the “highway” to the severs is flooded.
There are ways to mitigate it that the ISPs can take, but it is not exactly easy to tell legit traffic from bots. The bot software is usually malware on all sorts of internet connected PCs and devices. The people with that malware don’t even know their computer is sending out data messages aimed at a specific point.
Why? Sometimes it is to make some sort of political or social point. Other times it is someone bored who just wants to piss other people off. Games, streaming websites, government services, work from home tools, etc. All can be targets for people who want to cause chaos and misery.
They did the same thing to the Health and Human Services website for virus info the other night. The Health Department website was attacked in the middle of the coronavirus pandemic - Vox
Others send fake info out that can cause panic like falsely saying we had a national quarantine or were under martial law.
Wash your hands. Keep Calm. Game On.
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Protest against always online.
Pretty much the same for 90% of DDoS attacks on games.
Thanks for all the feedback. Shame that people feel the need to go out of their way to make things more difficult for others. I wonder if Blizzard was able to identify the person or people responsible for the attack. If that is even remotely possible.
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Haha, I was working for a web hosting company a few years ago and we were hit by a DDOS. Magically a company appeared out of nowhere trying to market DDOS mitigation software.
Our magic network guy traced the attack to this company in the US. He made a quick call to the FBI (we’re not in the US) and magically, within an hour, the DDOS stopped. And we never heard from them again…
Anyway, as far as I can tell from the Blizz comments, the DDOS isn’t against Blizzard, but rather whoever provides them with internet so they can’t directly do anything to fix the problem. We should take it easy and chill for a couple of days… it’s not like we’re going to suddenly run out of Season 20.
It’s times like this I’m glad I like both D3 and PoE. This way I have choices when I’m stuck in a quarantine.
I’m glad I have switched to AUS server. 
Have you tried SA or AUS servers? You are not bound to NA server.
Everyones argument about on line only is now DOA.
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Yeah, TLDR:
People targeted Blizzard with this, not D3 specifically.
It is really sad that people think this is an acceptable way to send a message. Wish this was considered a federal offense!