Charity drive Operation Supply Drop gets attacked by hackers

Operation Supply Drop’s third annual 8-Bit Salute 24 hour charity game marathon went live this morning at 9 a.m. Eastern time. By 10 a.m. hackers had disabled the military gaming charity’s website via DDoS attack. Operation Supply Drop is a charity organization dedicated to providing American military personnel with video games. The idea is that video games can help soldiers deal with conditions such as post-traumatic stress disorder and depression. 

Less than half an hour after beginning, the third annual 8-Bit Salute of Operation Supply Drop — a fund drive to send video games to U.S. troops serving abroad — was beset by hackers. “This is a battle, let’s show the world what happens when you mess with Gamers! ” organizers said in an email to backers. The charity’s main URL, operationsupplydrop.org, was also taken down, apparently by a distributed denial-of-service attack. The attack began sometime after 9 a.m. ET. The site returned but was taken down again. “Odds are this will happen again over the next 24 hours,” they wrote. Organized by a former Army captain who served eight years in Iraq, Operation Supply Drop aims to be a morale booster for service members deployed to combat zones or recovering in military hospitals. It has raised $750,000 in games and gear since its inception.