Gameside Down
Posted: Sat Jul 05, 2014 9:05 pm
Gameside Down NationStates struck with a Denial of Service Attack
COMMENTARY | UNIBOT
Panic is beginning to set in as players are left in the dark. NationStates has been “down” now for several hours and is expected to remain inaccessible for users for another twenty-four hours.
[violet], site admin, has told users that NationStates has been subject to a Denial of Service attack. Denial of Service attacks saturate a target with requests to such an extent that the target machine can no longer respond to other requests.
In recent years, Denial of Service attacks have become a common form of “internet protest” and a manner of revenge for disgruntled users, which has NationStates abuzz with speculation over the possibility that the recent “It’s Only Politics” campaign and the surrounding backlash against “Liberate Haven” may be involved with the denial of service attacks. Some roleplayers, that The Rejected Times spoke with, expressed concern that “one of their own” could be involved and feared it could have ramifications for their movement. Meanwhile, others still have speculated that this could be an attempt at “diversion” by a disgruntled invader – hoping to blame the attacks on the roleplayer community and discredit their campaign.
“Liberate Haven” is a proposal by Mallorea and Riva, notable moderator and griefer, which aims to exploit the WA Security Council to make it easier to invade and attack Haven, a well respected roleplayer region. The resulting backlash has spawned a larger forum-wide debate on the limits to military gameplay and the rights of natives to “opt out” of invasions.
Rumors, claiming to come from a credible source, suggest this attack was a “distributed denial of service” (not simply a denial of service) which indicates either multiple individuals being involved, a bot or some sort of malware. This source also suggests the site should be available within five hours – 1 AM EST.
Although the official forums are available for viewing, it is currently impossible to access the game or log into an account to post on the official forums. [violet], however, has shared some helpful hints for connecting to the game for the technologically advanced …
In the meantime, keep calm and get comfortable - this could take a while to resolve.If you are technically proficient enough to force an update of your system's DNS records, or you can manually assign 'www.nationstates.net' to 71.19.247.42, you can access us now. Otherwise you may need to wait for up to 24 hours before you can reach the server.