Sony and Microsoft Game Sites Knew DDOS Attacks Were Coming, But Couldn't Stop Them

DDOS attacks still work in 2015. The article below also discusses one interesting DDOS variant...

"Microsoft may have the most to lose here in terms of reputation. Like Sony, it sells video games and consoles. But it also has built a multibillion-dollar business around selling security software and hosting other companies’ computing operations on a cloud service called Azure, which itself suffered an outage on Nov. 18. The fact that it can’t guarantee its own security may raise big questions in customers’ minds.

Xbox Live was hosted by a mere 500 servers at Microsoft data centers when it launched in 2002. The company upgraded that to a whopping 300,000 hardware units when it unveiled Xbox One last year,according to Data Center Knowledge. But it still wasn’t enough to beat back Lizard Squad. “There is no 100 percent defense against this. One thing you’ve seen in 2014 is that no matter how much money you throw at this problem, it’s a continuous game,” said Lawrence Pingree, a cybersecurity analyst at Gartner. 'On the Internet we’re playing art-of-war directly, but it’s not physical; it’s not with tanks.'"http://www.ibtimes.com/why-microsoft-sony-couldnt-stop-lizard-squad-attack-despite-warnings-1769174