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Nicole 🐸🌿 @ prepping for shop reopening 💪

@munespice.bsky.social

tomatoads on the vine 🍅 🐸

An illustration of multiple tomato shaped frogs on vines and tomatoes and one actually tomato frog. All red and round

January 7, 2026 at 7:22 PM

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Only faces ever change

@oispammy.bsky.social

Yes

January 7, 2026 at 7:19 AM

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tali (sumire hanamitsu) @ 7.3

@demoniofleurs.bsky.social

I stumbled upon a thread on the FFXIV subreddit that I encourage everyone who is frustrated with the DDoS’ to read, as it goes over why this is a complicated issue with no real easy solution

www.reddit.com/r/ffxiv/comm...

Title: Irrational Attackers and you: A (potential) explanation for why you keep getting 90k'd

Is this actually a DDOS? Or does SE just have bad servers?

There is no reason to believe it is anything other than a ddos attack

In the last few weeks FFXIV has been kicking people off NA servers with 90k errors, this is confined to NA, and even if there have been some on EU/OCE/JP, it is orders of magnitude less common. There is no logical reason to assume the server software is different in each region, and since it it possible for both JP and NA to visit OCE, that is vanishingly unlikely.

Earlier today, when world first racers were getting 90k's they tried to data center travel to Materia to raid. The 90k errors then stopped on NA, and started on OCE. Once they gave up and returned to NA, so did the 90k's.

This is as close to evidence of a ddos attack as anyone who doesnt work for square enix can get.

That also means it is provider agnostic, as NTT America does not operate in Australia.

So that's the "how", now for the "why"

In threat modeling, there are two kinds of attackers, rational, and irrational.

Rational attackers are great (well, in terms of prevention), they are easy to understand, and can even be worked with at times, they are typically limited to actual hacking/unauthorized access attacks, but a rational attacker ddos could be "im ddosing you, pay me 3 million in bitcoin and I will stop"

This isnt very likely, as typically those demands are public to put pressure on the target company, but it is possible if they just sent SE the ransom directly... but again, unlikely.

An irrational attacker is FAR more likely, this doesnt mean somebody who is completely insane and has no reason, but someone who cannot be negotiated with, they just want to break things.

If a rational attacker is a burglar breaking into your home, an irrational one is a drunk teenager trying to throw a rock through your attic window.

In this case, I think its pretty clear whats going on. It is someone (or a group) that does not care about money, with no public ransom, and enough resources to repeatedly crash isp nodes (often multiple at a time) they are burning money to bring servers down for no gain. They are also willing to risk felony cybercrime charges (which this definitely counts as).

But why is it only ffxiv?

It isnt, its just that taking down any game costs a lot of money, so its very rare, even if you are just running a server for a few friends, you could be ddosed, it would just cost them far more to kill the server than it costs you to run it.

There are obviously DDOS solutions, but they really only work for website, and the solution for something that needs server connection is an active and ongoing problem, its (part of) why so many competetive games switched to peer-to-peer hosting, if you kill the host it only affects that one game, not the entire server.

Some more recent examples of non-ffxiv games taken down by ddos

Albion online, basically unplayable for several weeks in early summer last year after a mass ban of rmt accounts
World of warcraft earlier this week, im not sure why, but blizzard publicly acknowledged the cause on the launcher
League of legends also earlier this week, actually no clue on this one either edit: they forgot to renew client license, they did get hit with one ~3 months ago though that also took down steam
None of this is confirmed, I am just a third party with no insights into SE internals, using my experience with devops and cybersecurity to put pieces together

January 7, 2026 at 7:42 AM

Reposted by silverportal | dawntrailed

tameflowers.bsky.social

@tameflowers.bsky.social

here is probably the most whimsical and gormless creature ive made so far. just utterly permeable. under investigation for an allergy to tap water

a pale purple-blue ceramic dog type animal held in my hand. it has shiny black eyes, long legs, no teeth and a snout with no nose or nostrils. it has floppy ears and a generally greyhound-like build. its expression is faintly startled.

the same ceramic dog creature standing on paving. the inside of its mouth and around its eyes is pale pink, and its tummy is cream coloured. its blue colouration blends softly with its cream-white underside. it has a long, faintly feline tail.

a close-up of the face of the same ceramic creature.

the head of the same ceramic creature shown from above. in this photo, you can see that its shiny black eyes are positioned on the sides of its head and bulge out considerably.

December 4, 2025 at 5:17 AM

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saba sabaton

@sabato-n.bsky.social

i like his voice lines

January 6, 2026 at 2:13 AM

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Lio 🌿 Gravehearts out now!

@kroovv.bsky.social

Appletun! 🍎🍏

My favorite little guy
#Pokemon | #Art

A digital drawing of the pokemon Appletun, a dragon type that looks like a dragon thats a pie. In the drawing it’s going for a little trot in the grass

January 5, 2026 at 12:06 PM

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さばほっけ

@zakochirashi.bsky.social

2165:ride on!🏍️

#1日1ウパー

January 3, 2026 at 3:48 PM

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アサ🦤

@asacmdr.bsky.social

🍊🦤

January 3, 2026 at 11:11 PM

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Pach In Eorzea || Brute Bomber's Fan Club

@pachineorzea.bsky.social

We have made it to WoLship Saturday.

Today, please imagine how they've come out thru and in spite of the horrors. Imagine them tangled together in a moment of relief from it - the warmth of a body, the slowness of breath, the beat of a heart. Reminders that one survived.

Or don't.

I ain't ya mom.

January 3, 2026 at 1:21 PM

Reposted by silverportal | dawntrailed

Distribute Aid

@distributeaid.org

🚨 Thread collecting actionable steps to help civilians in Venezuela, Venezuelan refugees fleeing to neighboring countries, and Venezuelan immigrants in the US. 🚨

✅️ Please post ideas / links, especially to local frontline groups.

❌️ Please avoid non-actions, and be cautious regarding sanctions.

👇

January 3, 2026 at 8:03 AM

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Sophia Babai

@swingingstorm.bsky.social

Three million people live in Caracas, five million in the metro area. It's one of the densest cities in South America. Remember this in the morning when they try to spin this as anything other than a cold-blooded attack on a major civilian center.

January 3, 2026 at 7:20 AM

Reposted by silverportal | dawntrailed

Fenrishion!!!

@fenrishion.bsky.social

snowbuncles
#ffziv #ff14

January 3, 2026 at 12:58 AM

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旳

@diesel2b.bsky.social

学者
#NIGHTREIGN

December 29, 2025 at 3:05 PM

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tabita⁷💜

@faunna.bsky.social

[ 7.4 spoilers ] #ffxiv #art

December 31, 2025 at 9:07 PM

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Ryan Howe

@ryanhowe.bsky.social

Sitting a stewing in frustration isn't nearly as cathartic as just designing a poster. Let's see how often I remember that in 2026.

Graphic saying 'The democratization of art does not come from a billionaire's machine' with a pencil centred in the middle over the text

December 31, 2025 at 3:27 PM

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은민

@em913em.bsky.social

잘가 2025년!

December 31, 2025 at 10:14 AM

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juni/ico @ fanfest prep! (7.4 spoilers)

@aetherflow.bsky.social

if you want to absolutely destroy me in any capacity, just show me this

Ardbert reaching out to Seto. The text reads: "Seto, my old friend. You've grown!"

Seto feeling Ardbert's presence. The text reads: "Oh! Oh, Ardbert! How I've missed you!"

December 29, 2025 at 9:19 PM

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Beeeee (Comms closed!)

@slugelf-lizard.bsky.social

Ok maybe one more quick upscale and then I rest a little

Lover's Bootlets for Masc!
#BeeeeeMods

Links below! 🔽

December 30, 2025 at 2:50 AM

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Ol’ Riol

@riolforrest.bsky.social

🐀 riol skeb page by @zakuchu.bsky.social 🥺 i highly recc commissioning them, or at least checking out their work, i'm still so happy with how this page came out <3 thank you again, zaku!!