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Thread: Update on Server Issues (17th October 2005)

  1. #1

    Update on Server Issues (17th October 2005)

    The recent technical difficulties experienced by the dimensions are due to a Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) from anonymous third parties. Our investigations would suggest that this activity was specific and malicious in nature and intended to disrupt the service provided to our players.

    We hope you understand that we chose not to release any details on the nature of these issues earlier so that it did not compromise our continued investigations and so that we did not inadvertently release any information that could be used to facilitate any additional network attacks. However given the nature of the events over the weekend we felt that we needed to explain in more detail the nature of the current server issues to our users.

    We are working to determine the precise source of the attack and are in contact with the relevant law enforcement and technical authorities in order to minimise future disruptions. We will of course continue this work with all the relevant authorities to take whatever legal action is appropriate against those parties responsible for these malicious disruptions.

    In the interim we would like to assure all our players that our server team is continuing to use all available means to minimise the threat from these third parties. Unfortunately these attacks may continue and we regret that due to the ongoing nature of our investigations we cannot provide any specific estimate as to when we expect the situation to be completely resolved. We will though be implementing as many additional security measures as we can to limit the effectiveness of these attacks against our servers.

    It has also come to our attention that various parties may have been attempting to distribute invasive ‘Trojan’ virus files to the online gaming community. We would like to take this opportunity to remind our players to be vigilant against such threats to their home computers.

    We sincerely apologise for the disruption caused by these attacks recently and we ask for your understanding and cooperation as we work to maintain the best service we can under the circumstances.

    Thank you.
    Craig 'Silirrion' Morrison
    Old Timer

  2. #2
    We would like to thank everyone for their support and understanding under these circumstances and would like to assure all our players that everything that can be done is being done and we are working closely with all the relevant law enforcement authorities.

    The issue has of course raised some natural questions from players and we’d like to address a few of those here today.

    Firstly there is no danger to your accounts or account information in any way. Everything is still secure. These attacks work by attempting to spam our servers with massive amounts of small internet messages so that our servers get bogged down trying to process or divert this hostile traffic. The servers are not hacked in any way when this happens and the security of our networks is not compromised.

    People have also asked what they can do to secure their home computers from hostile virus programs. We would recommend that you observe the following general advice:

    • Keep your internet virus software up to date and active at all times
    • Never install any applications or files that you are not sure of the source. Virus programs are invariably hidden in a program claiming to be something else.
    • Never give out your password or account details to anyone. We will never ask for your password.
    • Use anti-spyware programs like Spybot or Ad-aware to keep your system clean of programs that may have been installed without your knowledge


    We have also noticed that several online news locations have been speculating as to the source of the attacks. We would like to mention that at this stage there is no suggestion that these attacks are revenge attacks from disgruntled players of any type. Whilst we appreciate it is easy to speculate during times like this, we cannot compromise the ongoing investigations by releasing any further information on the possible source of these malicious attacks.

    Again, our sincere thanks to all our players for their support during this issue and we will continue to put every precaution in place that we can to prevent these disruptions.
    Craig 'Silirrion' Morrison
    Old Timer

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