Presumably this is a fate that all smaller currencies that use SHA256 can suffer.
I have a theory that some are trying to undermine all the Alt-Currencies in a variety of ways not just by misusing their ASICs however with some weilding massive power with asics those using SHA256 are especially vulnerable.
Not good.
I disagree PPCoin is SHA256 and as far as I am aware it's impossible to 51% attack computationally because PPCoin relies upon proof of stake not just proof of work. So if an ASIC gets >51% of the hash rate they can't screw anything up. So that is the major threat averted.
Additionally if an ASIC jumps on and ramps up the difficulty and then goes off, PPCoin has it's intelligent difficulty adjustment scheme which has been coping admirably with such events.