crankymessiah wrote:
] ] Three weeks ago, in a stunning raid, Russian hackers
] ] seized control of the servers that support one of the
] ] Internet's largest online gaming operations, demanding a
] ] ransom. It was a real-life, high-tech version of the
] ] movie Ocean's Eleven. By the time the ransom was paid,
] ] one key server -- the one containing all operational data
] ] for 120 Internet gaming sites and a long list of
] ] consulting clients -- seemed to be stripped of its data.
] ]
] ]
] ]
] ] At stake were all the operational records of a gambling
] ] empire. "We didn't even have the names of customers,"
] ] says Juan Bonilla, executive vice-president of Grafix
] ] Softech F.A. of San Juan, Costa Rica. "We lost
] ] everything." To make matters worse, little, if any, of
] ] the data had been backed up off-site. Grafix Softech was
] ] losing an estimated US$75,000 a day in profits, and the
] ] incident left it open to lawsuits from customers whose
] ] businesses relied on Grafix Softech's services. What
] ] could have been a major disaster became a bump in the
] ] corporate road. In an amazing feat of ingenuity, CBL Data
] ] Recovery Technologies Inc. of Markham, Ont., managed to
] ] recover all the lost data. It was a close call, admits
] ] Bill Margeson, president of CBL

now *THAT'S* cyberterrorism.

Rattle wrote:
] ] Three weeks ago, in a stunning raid, Russian hackers
] ] seized control of the servers that support one of the
] ] Internet's largest online gaming operations, demanding a
] ] ransom. It was a real-life, high-tech version of the
] ] movie Ocean's Eleven.
]
] Backups are really keen.

The more I think about this story, the more it smells like either a publicity stunt, or a small company trying to get press by pretending they're larger than they are.

The phrase "largest online gaming operation" caught my eye on this one, both because it's my industry, and especially because over the last week, I've been editing the "White Paper on the State of the Online Games Industry," which will be presented at the International Game Developers Conference next week.

Now, granted, the IGDA's definition of "gaming" is a bit different from this article's definition. We haven't done a whole lot of research into the realm of online *gambling* -- it's seen as a different part of cyberspace, though there is some overlap since we do cover the realm of "skill-based" gaming, like where several players throw in a few bucks, then solve a puzzle, and whoever solves it fastest gets the pot.

But I still take exception with the headline of "largest online gaming operation", since I've never even heard of the company that was referred to in the article, and when I or anyone else in the IGDA is asked who's the largest online gaming operation, the instant answer is Korea's "Lineage" game, which has 4 million players (dwarfing EverQuest's 400,000 subscribers).

That, plus, as Rattle pointed out, that any truly experienced and professional company would understand the concept of *backups*, makes this article smell like little more than, at best, an unresearched, and at worst, self-promoting press release, with a catchy headline trying to promote itself as real news.

Anyway, as the "online gaming" expert on Memestreams, that's my $0.02 on the issue.

Elonka :)

Elonka wrote:
--snip--
] But I still take exception with the headline of "largest
] online gaming operation", since I've never even heard of the
] company that was referred to in the article, and when I or
] anyone else in the IGDA is asked who's the largest online
] gaming operation, the instant answer is Korea's "Lineage"
] game, which has 4 million players (dwarfing EverQuest's
] 400,000 subscribers).
--snip--
]
] Elonka :)

Holy bejesus. 4 _million_ what is this game? Does it despense heroine thru the keyboard?