Dead by Daylight streamers are being DDoS attacked
UPDATE: Behaviour Interactive has officially responded.
UPDATE 16/11/21: Dead by Daylight developer Behaviour Interactive has now responded publicly to the recent DDoS attacks.
"We take these reports extremely seriously," said the developer in a Twitter thread. "We're actively monitoring the situation internally and with our partners to gather as much information as possible and identify trends.
"We are terribly sorry to those who have been affected by these attacks- we understand the impact this has on you. We are taking every appropriate measure to ensure the safety of our players.
"We encourage our players to report any cases of DDoS, as well as any other form of inappropriate or abusive behaviour in the game through Customer Support. In the meantime, we encourage you to stay safe and follow best practices for online safety."
Streamers have criticised the developer, saying the message is too little too late.
In the meantime, you can use a VPN to help protect yourself from DDoS attacks.
ORIGINAL STORY 11/11/21: Dead by Daylight streamers are being DDoS attacked while playing the game live on stream.
For some streamers, that's led to doxxing and even swatting.
A distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack is a malicious attack on the IP address of a user, flooding the network with suspicious amounts of traffic from bots to prevent them from streaming.
This can, and does, happen to streamers of all games. But Dead by Daylight streamers specifically are currently being targeted.
One such streamer is drag queen Elix, who was doxxed and swatted while live - meaning their address was leaked and police were sent to their home.
"I'm doing ok, but having guns pointed at you while all your neighbors are watching as you walk slowly to the police and then getting handcuffed is fucked," they said in a tweet.
"They quickly figured out it was a fake call and one of the cops recognized me since he was also a DBD streamer (lol).
"The cops came into my house and checked every room, my community heard them since it all happened while I was live."
It's currently unclear why Dead by Daylight streamers are being targeted for these attacks. However, the game is particularly popular with the LGBT+ community, so this may be a malicious attack on marginalised people.
It's a step on from the hate raids that have occurred against minorities on Twitch.
Streamers are calling on developer Behaviour to protect its streamers.
Behaviour has responded to Eurogamer.
"Our players are of the highest importance for us. We work very hard to create a safe community for everyone, based on values of sportsmanship and inclusion.
"We're aware of certain targeted cases of distributed denial of services. It's a situation that we deplore and take extremely seriously. We're actively monitoring and investigating the situation, to gather as much information as possible and identify trends.
"We encourage our players to report to us any identified cases of DDoS as well as any other form of inappropriate or abusive behaviour in the game."
In the meantime, using a VPN is one way to prevent DDoS attacks.