{"id":302,"date":"2025-06-22T15:02:11","date_gmt":"2025-06-22T15:02:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.wp.odu.edu\/rlee\/?p=302"},"modified":"2025-06-22T15:13:06","modified_gmt":"2025-06-22T15:13:06","slug":"exploring-attacks-on-availability","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.wp.odu.edu\/rlee\/2025\/06\/22\/exploring-attacks-on-availability\/","title":{"rendered":"Exploring Attacks on Availability"},"content":{"rendered":"Ramon Lee<br \/>Attack on Availability: DDoS Attack on Blizzard Entertainment<br \/>An attack on availability refers to any cyberattack that disrupts or blocks access to systems,<br \/>services, or data, making them unusable for intended users. These attacks target the core<br \/>cybersecurity principle of availability by overwhelming or disabling critical resources.<br \/>A well-known example occurred in September 2022, when Blizzard Entertainment, the<br \/>gaming company behind Overwatch and World of Warcraft, was hit with a Distributed Denial<br \/>of Service (DDoS) attack. Players reported being kicked from games and unable to log back in<br \/>for hours. The attackers flooded Blizzard\u2019s servers with massive amounts of fake traffic, causing<br \/>system overloads and downtime (BBC News, 2022). DDoS attacks like this are common against<br \/>gaming platforms because even a short outage can frustrate users, damage brand reputation, and<br \/>result in revenue loss.<br \/>The impact of availability attacks goes far beyond inconvenience. For companies, prolonged<br \/>disruptions can lead to lost profits, broken trust with customers, and increased operational costs.<br \/>For users, it means delayed access to services they rely on, such as banking, healthcare, or<br \/>communication platforms. As these attacks grow more complex, organizations must adopt<br \/>layered defenses like traffic filtering, rate limiting, and cloud-based DDoS mitigation services.<br \/>Cyberattacks on availability show how a single vulnerability can impact millions of users at<br \/>once. That\u2019s why understanding and preparing for these types of attacks is essential for both<br \/>cybersecurity professionals and organizations that rely on digital infrastructure.<br \/>Reference<br \/>BBC News. (2022, September 14). Blizzard confirms DDoS attack after game servers<br \/>crash. https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/news\/technology-62896714<br \/>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Ramon LeeAttack on Availability: DDoS Attack on Blizzard EntertainmentAn attack on availability refers to any cyberattack that disrupts or blocks access to systems,services, or data, making them unusable for intended users. These attacks target the corecybersecurity principle of availability by overwhelming or disabling critical resources.A well-known example occurred in September 2022, when Blizzard Entertainment, thegaming&#8230; <\/p>\n<div class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/sites.wp.odu.edu\/rlee\/2025\/06\/22\/exploring-attacks-on-availability\/\">Read More<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":30933,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","wds_primary_category":0},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.wp.odu.edu\/rlee\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/302"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.wp.odu.edu\/rlee\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.wp.odu.edu\/rlee\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.wp.odu.edu\/rlee\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/30933"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.wp.odu.edu\/rlee\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=302"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sites.wp.odu.edu\/rlee\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/302\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":303,"href":"https:\/\/sites.wp.odu.edu\/rlee\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/302\/revisions\/303"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.wp.odu.edu\/rlee\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=302"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.wp.odu.edu\/rlee\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=302"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.wp.odu.edu\/rlee\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=302"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}