Are you 12? Do you not like someone on Xbox Live? Do you not have to go to the table right now and finish your yogurt? Well, you’re in luck because for $20 you can kick someone off of Xbox Live.
A fairly breathless story by the BBC describes hackers who send DDOS attacks to certain IP addresses, kicking the victim’s IP address off of XBL. There are two popular methods, one involving hosting a game and watching incoming traffic and another basically asking the victim “YO WUT IZ UR IP ADDY?” Both seem to work quite well when dealing with pre-teens.
The hacker then sends a botnet after the victim who can then unplug their router and get a new IP address from their ISP. Microsoft is less than outraged at these attacks, noting that you’d have to be a doofus to think that this was an XBL problem.
In response to the rise in attacks, Microsoft said: “We are investigating reports involving the use of malicious software tools that an attacker could use to try and disrupt an Xbox LIVE player’s internet connection.”
It added: “This problem is not related to the Xbox Live service, but to the player’s internet connection. The attacker could also attempt [to] disrupt other internet activities, such as streaming video or web browsing, using the same tools.
Thought: Perhaps the BBC interviewed only dumb kids?
Tomorrow on the BBC: Kids are downloading encrypted files, called Graphics Interchange Format programs, to share secret levels of popular games like Kid Icarus and Legend of Kage!