New DDoS Attacks From Lizard Squad To PlayStation Network And Xbox Live; Group Claims Responsibility For New Wave Of Hacks; Sony PSN Recovering, Microsoft’s Gaming Portal Still Down Thursday
Wednesday saw another round of hack attacks, and Lizard Squad claims the PlayStation Network and Xbox Live disruptions were theirs to own.
Sony's gaming portal was hacked again Christmas Day, hours after Microsoft's Xbox Live experienced the same disruption. The incident was an alleged Distributed Denial of Service attack, and the group Lizard Squad has once again claimed responsibility.
The incident is the latest wave of attacks to the gaming portals; the group's most recent claim was the September hacks, affecting online access to games like Call of Duty, FIFA, Destiny, Madden, and The Sims 4. In August, the group attacked the PlayStation Network, also servers run by World of Warcraft's Blizzard Entertainment.
Lizard Squad announced it would stop the attacks after August:
"We set out on our journey 2 weeks ago with the plan to cause havoc within the gaming community Our motives varied throughout this adventure. Originally it was to see if we could evade being caught and to experience the raw thrill of anarchy, not being bound to phony laws. We've been called everything from an organized criminal 'gang' to complete a**holes, really we are just a bunch of guys with too much free time."
Lizard Squad didn't claim any attack over October and November, resurfacing early December and took down the PlayStation and Xbox networks. The group planned to sustain the disruptions throughout the month, referring to itself as the "Next Generation Grinch."
Sony already recognized the disruption in its AskPlayStation Twitter account, but is yet to confirm if what happened Wednesday was a DDoS attack. Xbox Live is still offline as of yesterday.
Another group claims knowledge of the identity of the Lizard Squad, and has apparently exposed its cover. The "Finest Squad" also claimed it discovered Lizard Squad's plans to DDoS the gaming networks before Wednesday.
The threats made by the Lizard Squad to the PlayStation Network also involved a bomb threat to Sony Executive John Smedley, forcing a grounded flight last August (businessinsider.com).
