A DDoS attack, or distributed denial of service attack, against Andorra Telecom resulted in an internet outage affecting the entire country on January 21.
Andorra Telecom is the sole network provider in Andorra, a small European microstate that sits between France and Spain. The DDoS attack took place during the Twitch Rivals: SquidCraft Games event spanning multiple days, which several Andorran streamers were participating in.
The DDoS attack might have been targeting streamers in Andorra
SquidCraft Games is a Twitch streaming event and Minecraft tournament inspired by the hit Netflix series Squid Game. Participants play for an attractive US$100,000 prize pool, and just like the Netflix series, players are eliminated until the winner is left standing.
The tournament has proven incredibly popular, according to Esports Charts, drawing over 1 million peak viewers on its first day.
But on the second day of the Twitch Rivals tournament, many Andorran streamers were eliminated after disconnecting repeatedly.
Some suspect that the timing of the attacks was no coincidence, and was motivated by the large prize pool and the fact that many of the streamers were playing from Andorra, including several popular Spanish streamers with followings in the millions.
Taking the Andorran streamers out of the game would mean better chances for the remaining players to win the grand prize.
NetBlocks, a group that tracks network disruptions and shutdowns, claimed in a tweet that the DDoS attack was actually targeting the Twitch Rivals: SquidCraft Games competition, although nothing has been officially confirmed at this point.
Unfortunately, the rest of Andorra also went down with the eliminated streamers. The internet outage lasted for over half an hour after the start of the DDoS attacks as Andorra Telecom worked to restore service.
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