The suspect behind the distributed denial of service attacks against World of Warcraft Classic earlier this month has been tracked down and arrested, following Blizzard’s commitment to ensure a smooth experience for players.
The DDoS attacks that hit World of Warcraft Classic started on September 7. As players started complaining of server issues, a person who goes by UkDrillas on Twitter took credit for the attacks, tweeting out warnings 30 minutes before each wave. Logging into most of the game’s servers during that time was nearly impossible, while those who were able to connect were eventually kicked from the game.
In an update to the original post on the official Blizzard forums that acknowledged the DDoS attacks, a community manager provided closure to the incident by claiming that the suspect behind it was identified and arrested within a few days. The Blizzard Security Team worked with both local and international law enforcement to track down the attacker, though it is unclear if the arrested suspect is also the one behind the UkDrillas account on Twitter.
In both the United States and Europe, DDoS attacks are charged as federal crimes that may lead to prison sentences of several years. In the United Kingdom, the penalty is a maximum sentence of 10 years. The reason for the suspect’s attack against World of Warcraft Classic servers remains unknown, but whatever it was, the trade-off will likely be jail time. More than a year ago, a DDoS attacker who targeted World of Warcraft was sentenced to a year in prison with a nearly $30,000 fine.
World of Warcraft Classic takes players back to what the popular MMO looked like back in 2006, before the first expansion, The Burning Crusade. The experience does not cost anything upfront for players who have an active World of Warcraft subscription, which goes for $15 per month, as well as very minimal system requirements.
Blizzard has had its hands full in protecting World of Warcraft, including trying to keep World of Warcraft Classic a fair experience by stopping a shady farming method and filing a copyright infringement lawsuit against a Chinese company for a blatant rip-off.
